At 0441 GMT tomorrow morning we will get totality of a super blood wolf moon. Still deciding whether it is worth getting up early for and freezing to death outside to try to photograph it. We will probably have 100% cloud cover.
2 Likes
Calling the nerds @PhysicsHunter, @asaratis, @Exodus.
This is the sort of thing I think about a lot and would appreciate some nerdy input 
Fact: longer skis are faster than shorter skis of the same width and shape. Is it to do with the ski when in contact with snow /ice, melts the top layer so can glide further if longer?
Fact: men are faster in straight line speed. Heavier buggers are faster (thorn in my side). The way I see it:
F=mg - (resistance of skis + air resistance)
Mass is a linear measurement, air resistance is proportional to surface area, proportional to volume, which is a cubic measurement. Assuming all skiers are not fat blobs and are of similar density of bone and muscle, then volume / surface area increases exponentially in relation to mass. Hence big bastards are faster.
I have a pair of Scott skis 165cm which on paper are fine for me but in reality I canāt turn well on them. I am 168cm, 51kg, and I donāt think I have the weight to force a decent edge on them. My Head piste skis are 156cm and which I use the most. Great for ice and groomed pistes but shit for anything deep. I would just sink and face plant. I have some K2 freestyle skis at 149cm. They are really skippy and great for jumping over moguls but straight speed is slow. Slower than my daughterās piste skis at 140cm. Why?
Piste skis have thick narrow waists with a camber, which makes them great for carving turns but effectively you have 2 mini snow ploughs at the waists. Freestyle and all mountains have much wider waists, for floating over the snow. I am considering getting the 159cm K2ās. Would they be faster than my piste skis? I donāt know, but I doubt it. They ought to be. They would be slightly less playful than the 149ās but thatās fine.
Strange is OK as long as it wasnāt hurtful 
I am glad you have not included me in the nerdy group as I havenāt a clue what the outcome will be unless I cheat and google the answer.
And with respect to tomorrows moon, you are right it looks like itās going to be overcast and yet tonight here on the coast is clear. What a bummer, the same happened last year with the lunar eclipse, I waited 2 hours on the beach hoping it would clear but nothing to be seen.
Google canāt help. It can only regurgitate what it is fed, it canāt think. 
True, I think Iāve found a set of skis I might be safe withā¦
And it seems all you need to go faster is one of theseā¦
Can you see the moon where you are yet ??? it is a beauty already
3 Likes
#2 reporting with a preliminary report.
You have come to the right place.
My initial thought here is that for a longer ski, the psi applied to the bottom surface of the ski is lower, hence the frictional force per square inch of surface area is lowerā¦and the graph of friction related to length (surface area) may not be linear. In other words, reducing the length by 10% may increase the friction by 11%. (arbitrary numbers)
It has not been confirmed to me that snow melts underneath a ski.
This will be an assumption on my part on my part at this time as I have not read such in a technical paper but I do take your word for itā¦and I do suspect that a slight bit of melting occurs. I do accept as fact that this occurs underneath an ice skaterās blade, but in that case the pressure is exponentially higher.
I am also aware that skis will function on sand dunes where there is certainly no melting involvedā¦whereas ice skates will not.
With less pressure on the snow as the ski moves forward, there is less internal friction affecting the skis. (The internal friction would be that due to the snowflakes beneath the surface (not in contact with the skis) being compressed to the point that the lower ones bridge together and impede the forward motion [or tumbling] of the top layer.)
All this becomes even more complicated when one considers the fact that snow skis flex up and down and the pressure varies from maximum under the feet of the skier to minimum (perhaps even zero at times) at the tips.
Also, when a hump in the snow is encountered at speed, the skier (and skis) become airborne and for a time there is nothing but air resistanceā¦no friction from the snow.
Iāve not ever been on a pair of snow skis, but have experience many forms of water skis, including pairs and slalom skis. In all cases, the length of the skis affects the ease with which the skis are turned ever so slightlyā¦whether intentional or not. Trick skis are as short as 3 feetā¦and some fools ski on their bare feet.
A ski that is not parallel to the line of travel will slow the motion forward. I suspect that the shorter the ski, the more it is unintentionally out of alignment with the direction vector.
I reserve the right to revise and extend my remarks.
1 Like
2 Likes
Thanks! I will need to read that through slowly a few timesā¦ 
Ok, my younger one is 22kg and has skis of 110cm. Someone of 80kg and 6ft would have skis of 170cm. I would say the bigger bugger would have more pressure underfoot.
Moon at 6pm tonight. Sod getting up at 4:30, I can just put an orange filter on that.
BTW, I think that dinghy would just rip on the ice.
1 Like
whoaaa have you just taken this ?? it looks like it has been taken through a telescope ?
Nope. 300mm lens, f/8, 1/250th sec, ISO 200. Taken as raw file (CR2) and cropped, saved as jpg.
2 Likes
Iām a crinkly and I ride a motorbikeā¦
1 Like
My brother hit a lamppost
ā¦
Six feet above the ground
Okkkk, I will get my brother to translate this for me to understand what this language is but in my defense I know what cropped is and saved as jpgā¦ 
Shiiiiiiit, Itās good when you can look back and smile about it EX
Well ā¦ this might be my last post for a bit, unless someone has chipped-inā¦
As a foster carer I can tell you that we carers are offered immunisation against various forms of Hepatitis. I can also tell you that our current charge was screened for TB, ājust in caseā.
So whatever Max Mosley said, I feel he was right about the threat of importing diseases along with the immigrants. Anybody going to North Africa (Morocco or Tunisia for instance) is advised to renew (or get one if they have not had one) a Polio vaccine because that disease is rife in NA.
2 Likes
He was 17-ish, it was somewhere in Kings Langley area (near Watford).
He was mucking about with some local miscreants, came down a hill ā¦ over a canal bridge ā¦ didnāt realise there was not enough space to land on the other side. He walked away from it.
I was in Uni a the timeā¦
His last bike was a Harley which he relinquished about 10 years ago, mainly due to wife-pressure I think.
1 Like
Actually, thatās the dark side of the moon. Jen is on a lunar tripā¦been snorting that moon dust again. 
2 Likes
From time to time the clutter in my peripheral vision shouts that I am ignoring herā¦
1 Like
ā¦chipped-in to what?