ICE SKATING
Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including exercise, leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and rivers.
Skating became popular as a recreation, a means of transport, and spectator sport in The Fens in England for people from all walks of life. Racing was the preserve of workers, most of them agricultural laborers. It is not known when the first skating matches were held, but by the early nineteenth century racing was well established and the results of matches were reported in the press. When the waters froze, skating matches were held in towns and villages all over the Fens. In these local matches men (or sometimes women or children) would compete for prizes of money, clothing or food.
A skate can slide over ice because the ice molecules at the surface cannot properly bond with the molecules of the mass of ice beneath and thus are free to move like molecules of liquid water. These molecules remain in a semi-liquid state, providing lubrication.
It had long been believed that ice is slippery because the pressure of an object in contact with it causes a thin layer to melt. The hypothesis was that the blade of an ice skate, exerting pressure on the ice, melts a thin layer, providing lubrication between the ice and the blade. This explanation, called "pressure melting", originated in the 19th century. This, however, did not account for skating on ice temperatures lower than −3.5°C, whereas skaters often skate on lower-temperature ice. In the 20th century, an alternative explanation, called "friction heating", was proposed, whereby friction of the material was causing the ice layer melting. However, this theory also failed to explain skating at low temperature. In fact, neither explanation explained why ice is slippery when standing still even at below-zero temperatures.
The theme for the 2014 Cold Cache Series involves WINTER SPORTS of various types, both Olympic and not. These caches will only be available from January 1st through March 31st. Get 'em while they're ho--err--COLD!