{"id":1542,"date":"2022-01-22T18:56:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T17:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/wordpress_test\/?p=1542"},"modified":"2026-10-12T20:57:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T19:57:29","slug":"why-can-we-skate-on-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/2022\/01\/22\/why-can-we-skate-on-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Ice So Slippery? The Science Behind Skating"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"1542\" class=\"elementor elementor-1542\" data-elementor-settings=\"[]\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-section-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-5ce745fb elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"5ce745fb\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-4381cb3c\" data-id=\"4381cb3c\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3557cf6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"3557cf6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.5.5 - 03-02-2022 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#818a91;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#818a91;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<div style=\"font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.75; color: #43545a; font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 20px;\">Ice is remarkably slippery, but why? Even after more than 150 years of research, the physics behind this everyday phenomenon has remained surprisingly difficult to explain.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 28px;\">Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have uncovered an important piece of the puzzle: <span style=\"color: #10708a; font-weight: 500;\"> highly mobile water molecules at the surface of ice allow objects to slide with very little friction. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"color: #10708a; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; margin: 28px 0 16px;\">What did we discover?<\/h3>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f3f7f8; border-left: 3px solid #10708A; padding: 18px 22px; border-radius: 6px; margin-bottom: 25px;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 14px;\"><span style=\"color: #10708a; font-weight: 600;\">Temperature matters.<\/span> As ice gets colder, surface molecules become less mobile, increasing friction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 14px;\"><span style=\"color: #10708a; font-weight: 600;\">Pressure changes friction.<\/span> Higher local contact pressure can make sliding more difficult, helping explain why polished skates perform better.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\"><span style=\"color: #10708a; font-weight: 600;\">Speed plays a role.<\/span> The interplay between temperature, pressure, and sliding speed determines how easily a skate glides over ice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3 style=\"color: #10708a; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; margin: 28px 0 14px;\">The perfect skating conditions<\/h3>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 28px;\">The research helps explain why ice skating rinks often aim for temperatures around <span style=\"color: #10708a; font-weight: 600;\">\u22127\u00b0C<\/span>, where the balance between surface mobility and ice hardness creates favourable skating conditions.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"color: #10708a; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; margin: 28px 0 14px;\">Explore the research<\/h3>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\"><span style=\"color: #10708a;\">\u2192<\/span> <strong>Scientific publication:<\/strong> <a style=\"color: #10708a; text-decoration: underline; text-underline-offset: 3px;\" href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1103\/PhysRevX.11.011025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Liefferink et al., <em>Friction on Ice: How Temperature, Pressure and Speed Control the Slipperiness of Ice<\/em>, Physical Review X (2021) <\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 28px;\"><span style=\"color: #10708a;\">\u2192<\/span> <strong>Related research:<\/strong> <a style=\"color: #10708a; text-decoration: underline; text-underline-offset: 3px;\" href=\"https:\/\/iop.uva.nl\/content\/news\/2018\/05\/the-slipperiness-of-ice-explained.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> The Slipperiness of Ice Explained \u2014 University of Amsterdam (2018) <\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 14px; color: #6b7c85; border-top: 1px solid #E1E8EA; padding-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 0;\">Contact: Bart Weber \u2014 <a style=\"color: #10708a; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"mailto:b.weber@uva.nl\"> b.weber@uva.nl <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ice is remarkably slippery, but why? Even after more than 150 years of research, the physics behind this everyday phenomenon has remained surprisingly difficult to explain. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have uncovered an important piece of the puzzle: highly mobile water molecules at the surface of ice allow objects to slide with very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1542"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3987,"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions\/3987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iop.fnwi.uva.nl\/scm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}