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Re: misconception re ice melting under skates



However, despite the high didactic, even inflexible tone conveyed in
this note, I do not discard the idea that the person who published the
research paper, Hewitt, may have it right - that a particular plastic
line may be DEAD-stopped by an iceblock that will permit a metal wire
to penetrate.
You see, it seems Hewitt's critics have over-simplified the physics -
as teachers sometimes do.
In my view - a controlling parameter is the ratio of thermal
conductivity in the line to that of the surrounding ice.
If THIS ratio becomes sufficiently low ( for a particular diameter
of lines) then the latent heat is dissipated in side ice where it
does not contribute to the desired effect, rather than ice in the desired
plane where it is needed.

Come on, Brian! This was *not* a peer reviewed piece of work; it was
a conscious oversimplification in a textbook we've discussed before.
The way that this works, the conductivity of the adjacent ice
contributes also to the transfer of heat to the ice beneath the
string because that ice is *colder* than 0 degrees C. Nothing is
likely to steal the latent heat from the coldest point in the system.

Leigh