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The Physics of Hockey
What do Wayne Gretzky and thermodynamics have in common? A lot more than you might think. The game the National Hockey League calls " the coolest game on earth" is also a fast-paced, dynamic display of physics in action.
In The Physics of Hockey, physicist and amateur hockey player Alain Haché examines some of the physical principles behind the world's most popular winter team sport. What makes ice so slippery you can skate on it? How can you skate backwards most rapidly? How can physics improve your slapshot? Why do some collisions cause injuries but not others? How does a Zamboni work? And how do you prepare a pure, smooth ice surface in Dallas when it's 90 degrees outside and there are twenty thousand people inside?
This is physics by a hockey fan for the hockey fan. Haché investigates the properties of the ice surface, the science of skating and of skates, the odds of winning and losing streaks, and the principles behind shooting, hitting, and goaltending. Touching on topics such as solid-state physics, statistical physics elasticity, probability, thermodynamics, and mechanics, Haché uses science to enhance our appreciation and understanding of the game. The book is illustrated with photos and graphs and punctuated with anecdotes to show how famous players, past and present, are really physicists on skates.
A thought-provoking, fun, and gentle introduction to some basic issues in physics, The Physics of Hockey is a truly unique book worthy of the shelf of every hockey fan and physics enthusiast.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 27, 2018
For diehard scientists who are also big hockey fans only! If you happen to be both (like me) then this book is for you; suggest skimming over the equations though, as unless your name is Euclid or Decartes they really don't add that much extra to the spirit of the book.
March 22, 2011
This is a little something different. It is an actual physics book written by a hockey fan. Yes, of course, my interest was more in the hockey than in the physics, but I wanted to understand the physics better. To be honest, I had hoped to get some cool formulae to plug into my Excel spreadsheet. I was never able to find the right data to plug into the formulae over than the very basic data that Hache gives in the book. When I couldn’t find that data to plug in (other than the data points that Hache himself provides, I set the book aside to read at a future date. Then, during a move from Atlanta to Chicago, it was packed in a storage box that sat for over two years.
Needless to say, my rediscovery of this book in a year the Blackhawks aren’t looking like the Stanley Cup Champions they were last year, was something like turning the red light on. I no longer felt like I had to personally calculate Duncan Keith’s slap shot and discover that, when shot from the foul line, the puck might drop 40” from the spot where Keith was originally aiming (pp. 72-3). I no longer felt like I had to do the math to follow his explanation of how the speed of the puck will drop approximately 12 MPH from blue line to the net on such a shot (p. 76). I suddenly felt free to enjoy the book instead of feeling like I was going to become a master of hockey physics (in order to correct my acquaintances who do this for a living on computer/video hockey games, I suppose).
Reading the book helped me understand a lot of aspects of hockey that many fans probably take for granted. While I understood replacing a broken stick, I never understood why it was necessary to change gloves and helmets so often until The Physics of Hockey explained “deformation length” and how new equipment adds a lot to the total length of deformation, but older equipment compresses and isn’t as effective (pp. 114-115). While I understood the basic idea of a goalie coming out to face an opponent and “cut down the angles,” this book both illustrates the angles (p. 139, Figure 5-3) and gives one the formula for figuring the angles. Hache even offers a calculation for how much of the net a big goalie, fully equipped, actually covers (55%, p. 137).
Because I allowed the book to sit in a box in storage for so long, most of the players mentioned in the book are retired. For example, Al MacInnis and his famous slap shot (analyzed from pp. 80-84) are both immortalized in a statue outside the ScottTrade Center in St. Louis. Again, Patrick Roy (now retired) provides the comparison point between Ken Dryden’s baseball-sized goalie glove in the ‘70s to Roy’s gloves with big pockets and wrist cuffs, used today (p. 136). So, the dated nature of the player references might put off some readers (not real hockey fans, but some).
Yet, in spite of the dated nature of the book, there is a section on concussions that needs to be “absorbed” by NHL and NFL executives, today. Hache offers the best explanation of a concussion from a sports collision that I have seen (p. 123) and he doubles the ante by sharing from his personal experiences (p. 122). I’d like to scan a few of the pages dealing with head injuries and email them to people who gripe about modern players not having the heart of the old-timers. It’s an eye-opening discussion, to say the least.
In short, I find The Physics of Hockey to be a unique and stimulating look at the sport I love. I don’t think a lot of people have read it, but I believe it would be influential and possibly even save lives if more people did. And I know I’ll enjoy watching/listening to my next hockey game more as a result. Go Hawks!
Needless to say, my rediscovery of this book in a year the Blackhawks aren’t looking like the Stanley Cup Champions they were last year, was something like turning the red light on. I no longer felt like I had to personally calculate Duncan Keith’s slap shot and discover that, when shot from the foul line, the puck might drop 40” from the spot where Keith was originally aiming (pp. 72-3). I no longer felt like I had to do the math to follow his explanation of how the speed of the puck will drop approximately 12 MPH from blue line to the net on such a shot (p. 76). I suddenly felt free to enjoy the book instead of feeling like I was going to become a master of hockey physics (in order to correct my acquaintances who do this for a living on computer/video hockey games, I suppose).
Reading the book helped me understand a lot of aspects of hockey that many fans probably take for granted. While I understood replacing a broken stick, I never understood why it was necessary to change gloves and helmets so often until The Physics of Hockey explained “deformation length” and how new equipment adds a lot to the total length of deformation, but older equipment compresses and isn’t as effective (pp. 114-115). While I understood the basic idea of a goalie coming out to face an opponent and “cut down the angles,” this book both illustrates the angles (p. 139, Figure 5-3) and gives one the formula for figuring the angles. Hache even offers a calculation for how much of the net a big goalie, fully equipped, actually covers (55%, p. 137).
Because I allowed the book to sit in a box in storage for so long, most of the players mentioned in the book are retired. For example, Al MacInnis and his famous slap shot (analyzed from pp. 80-84) are both immortalized in a statue outside the ScottTrade Center in St. Louis. Again, Patrick Roy (now retired) provides the comparison point between Ken Dryden’s baseball-sized goalie glove in the ‘70s to Roy’s gloves with big pockets and wrist cuffs, used today (p. 136). So, the dated nature of the player references might put off some readers (not real hockey fans, but some).
Yet, in spite of the dated nature of the book, there is a section on concussions that needs to be “absorbed” by NHL and NFL executives, today. Hache offers the best explanation of a concussion from a sports collision that I have seen (p. 123) and he doubles the ante by sharing from his personal experiences (p. 122). I’d like to scan a few of the pages dealing with head injuries and email them to people who gripe about modern players not having the heart of the old-timers. It’s an eye-opening discussion, to say the least.
In short, I find The Physics of Hockey to be a unique and stimulating look at the sport I love. I don’t think a lot of people have read it, but I believe it would be influential and possibly even save lives if more people did. And I know I’ll enjoy watching/listening to my next hockey game more as a result. Go Hawks!
May 6, 2014
An interesting if not earth-shattering look at how we can reduce the infinite variables in the game of ice hockey to its physical properties. I learned some interesting thing about the physics of ice and collisions, and angles involved in shooting and saving pucks. Mostly, this text was useful in seeing the mathematical methods used in reducing such complex systems to their mathematical roots.
March 29, 2016
Very interesting and entertaining. I know zilch about physics, and didn't even try to follow the formulas, and still managed to learn a lot, not just about hockey, but about physics itself.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews