カーリング・ストーン運動のエッジ・モデル

抄録

The physical origin of the force to cause a curling stone to curl or deflect has been a long outstanding and thorny problem in the curling physics. In this paper we propose a new physical mechanism “edge model” producing a lateral force to the motion of a curling stone. It is based on the fact that the running band produces the normal Coulomb friction force but also another drag force because the running band is bounded by two edges of different angles, the inner edge angle being a little bigger than the outer edge angle. The difference produces a larger drag on the rear half running band, which is shown to cause the stone to curl to one side or another. The validity of the mechanism was checked and confirmed in a simple experiment carried out using test running bands with different edge angles on a curling ice sheet.