Skiers perform their feat on a thin layer of water. They also do a great deal of waxing. The first is because of the way how their immediate physical impact works. The friction between the underside of the ski and the gliding surface causes melting, as they pitch in. This creates a thin presence of water, and the ski actually slides over this instant track. The depth of this layer is crucial to what kind of wax a skier uses.
Both racing and recreational skiers spend hours waxing their equipment – mainly, of course, to bump up schussing efficiency but also to protect the equipment’s base materials from wear and oxidation. The layer of water underneath becomes thick or thin depending atmospheric temperature. If it is thin, the ski sticks and skiers use hard wax to fight the friction. If thick, it creates suction that affects the ease and speed of sliding over the layer. This is when a skier uses soft wax.
Modern skis come with a base layer of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene. Because of its unique molecular properties and strong crystalline structure, this material has a low Teflon-like coefficient of friction and it is remarkably resistant to abrasion. Some use it to create bullet-proof jackets and artificial hip and knee joints. In fact, it is so efficient that waxing it is not actually necessary. Mid-Sweden University researcher Leonid Kuzmin says skiers are wasting their time, irrespective of their choice of wax – and that is not just because waxing is superfluous.
Kuzmin, a former cross-country racing champion and presently a ski coach, made the astounding discovery that the presence of ski wax affords better schussing only for about a couple of 100 metres. Past that point, unwaxed skis are faster, for those treated with wax slow down as they attract more dirt. It is true Kuzmin’s study was confined cross-country skiers, but possibly downhill racers too can find his advice handy: forget about ironing wax on and pay more attention to the slopes.
All ski-wax makers, however, don’t have to pack up shop. For instance, cross-country skiers still need kick wax to apply to parts of the blades that directly come under their feet and are not supposed to touch the ground when they glide. While glide wax helps skis move faster, kick wax brings in the opposite effect. It pushes off the skiers when they are on flat surfaces, and stops them from slipping while they are on uphill climbs.
SNEAK PREVIEW
BIRTHDAY IN THE WINTER SOLSTICE
Who was the first to have his birthday celebrated on December 25th? Apu Inti? Jesus Christ? Mithra? Or Sol Invictus? It’s Mithra, the sun god who was known more than 3,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found his Temple even in London, built by the Romans. Mithra was Mithras in Rome. Third Century the Emperor Aurelian declared that the birth of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun, would be celebrated on Mithras’ birthday, December 25th. About 75 years later, Christ’s birthday was moved from January 6th to December 25th. Apu Inti, the Inca sun god, was also celebrated on the Winter Solstice, but in the southern hemisphere — around June 21.
THOUGHTLESS WITH A LOT OF THOUGHTS
What would take place in your mind if I ask you to bring your thoughts to a standstill? Once a French research group tried this in a real-life experiment. They asked their subjects not to think, but rather to close their eyes, remain still, and avoid mental tasks such as counting and following mental images. Can you guess what happened to them when they tried to be thoughtless? They fell asleep? They had fewer thoughts? The number of thoughts they had didn’t change? They had more thoughts? You bet, that last one was what had actually taken place.
QUIZ No.213
1. Which freedom fighter fathered an Austrian daughter named Anita?
– Lech Walesa
– Patrice Lumumba
– Letlapa Mphahlele
– Netaji S.N. Bose
1. Netaji S.N. Bose
2. What do you call a series of small naps in place of several hours of sleep in one stretch?
– Morse code
– Da Vinci sleep
– Flamenco siesta
– Staircase slumber
2. Da Vinci sleep
3. Which Nobel winning author dedicated a work to the Czech Republic’s first President Vaclav Havel?
– Czeslaw Milosz
– Vicente Aleixandre
– Wladyslaw Reymont
– Samuel Beckett
3. Samuel Beckett (the work is ‘Catastrophe’).
4. Bertrand Russell wrote “Why I am not a Christian”. Who wrote a similar piece on Islam?
– Ibn Warraq
– Salman Rushdie
– Feisal Abdul Rauf
– Irshad Manji
4. Ibn Warraq (who wrote ‘Why I Am Not a Muslim’)
5. Who has opened a soccer school for children?
– Didier Zokora
– David Beckham
– Diego Maradonna
– Deitmar Hamann
5. David Beckham