How Curling Works
February 24th, 2010
In case Monday’s comic on curling whet your tastebuds for curling (check out the comments), here’s a great infographic from GOOD about how curling works. I’m not seeing any “curl”. LINK.
In case Monday’s comic on curling whet your tastebuds for curling (check out the comments), here’s a great infographic from GOOD about how curling works. I’m not seeing any “curl”. LINK.
February 25th, 2010 at 7:22 am
Um… the part of the graphic right in the middle labeled "The Curl"?
… and then I looked at the graphic and realized that they have just a bunch of buzzwords and stats on it. Lemme help this.
I'm guessing you already know the whole method of scoring means getting stones closer to a middle point without any opposing team's stones being closer.
The basic part of the game is then to just drop a stone right in the middle of the circle.
But then the concept of the guard comes in. Basically, you drop a stone up front, way outside the circles, or "House." If the other team spends a stone to try and get that guard out of the way, the laws of physics transfer all the momentum of that stone into the guard, meaning that the once-moving stone is now stuck in no man's land, way outside the House.
The trick is to then spin the stone, so that it's acting on a couple of different forces – the straight-forward momentum that's being slowed by the friction of the ice, and a spinning force (centrifugal? ug, I can't remember my physics at the moment). That spin can "curl" the stone in a nice, lazy drift to the left or right. So the skip will launch a stone at a point set out to the far edge, away from the guard. Sweeping also effects the speed of the stone, and a slower-moving stone with more spin on it will curl more. By scrubbing the ice with the broom, it speeds up a stone and straightens out the curl.
February 25th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
dernjg, I do believe the image to be more a basic explanation of the sport, never intended to transfer full knowledge of tecniques, tactics and the like, but more an introduction into this wonderful sport.
Nice elaboration on strategy and technique though