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Re: misconception re ice melting under skates





You misinterpret the result. Doing the experiment indoors assures
that the ice will be at the melting point. Pressure melting occurs
at the melting point at a relatively low pressure. A reasonable
way to test your hypothesis is to take wires of different thermal
conductivities and identical diameters (say stainless steel and
copper) and time their cutting. One would expect the times to
differ by the same proportion as their thermal conductivities if
your hypothesis is correct.

Leigh

A very good point, Leigh. P. Hewitt in his book writes (p. 295)
that thermal conductivity does play a crucial role in the indoor
experiment. He says that a string [ I believe he meant a plastic string]
won't do it. So, the negative result in the outdoor experiment was simply
an evidence that the pressure Ludwik arranged in his OUTDOOR TEMPERATURE
environment was not high enough for the cause the regelation to go which is
plausible (the required pressure must be a function of temperature). Sorry
for my intrusion.
Igal.