Smart Dudes Take an Interest in Snowboards
 

Yeah, I know that doesn't seem possible.

http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/8/11/5/1


A train that runs on feathers
10 November 2004

What do trains, red blood cells and snowboarding have in common? More
than you might think according to scientists who hope to develop a new
type of train track based on lessons they have learned from the flow
of blood through the body and experiments with a snowboarder. Sheldon
Weinbaum and colleagues at the City College of New York claim that a
track made of goose feathers is capable of supporting the weight of a
moving train (Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 194501).
.....

To measure the pressures that develop during snowboarding, Weinbaum
and colleagues used a piston cylinder apparatus that was capable of
reproducing the dynamic forces experienced by a moving snowboard
(figure 1). They calculated that the air trapped in the snow can
easily support the weight of a 70-kg snowboarder. They also found that
the pore pressure underneath a snowboard with a surface area of 5000
square centimetres is about 1.4 kilopascals.
.....



Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 194501
http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v93/e194501

While pondering the Universe, (Beloved Leader)
wrote :

http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v93/e194501

The inner geek in me would like to read this but I'm not near any Uni that
carries any APS journals. I wonder if their is a new industry out there
for us snowboarding guinea pigs!