What can fingers brushing against a 40-pound piece of granite do in any event?

This is a fun little physics problem.

The CoF of a curling stone on ice appears to be between .006 and .016 depending on fast its sliding.

So with a CoF of .006 that 40lb chunk of granite has an effective weight of just four ounces relative to that same chunk of granite at a CoF of 1. With a CoF of .016 it’s relative weight is 9 ounces.

So if the finger brush is in either the X or Y axis then basically anything more than what it takes to press a key on your keyboard will have an effect.

Trying to stop the stone from rotating is a whole different matter because then you’re working against it’s stored inertia and that will be much much higher. No way to calculate that though unless you know it’s rate of spin.

ok, but we are talking about a sport that is using brooms to micro melt the ice, and on a molecular level changing how the rotation changes the direction of this rock… someone touching the rock seems much more impactful

the primary method of playing the game involves melting a microscopic layer of ice to alter the trajectory of the 40lbs rock….

Accident? He’s done it multiple times. The women’s team did it too.

There’s a middle ground between “completely innocent” and “massive cheats”. I think it’s possible that the Canadians have all trained in a technique where they release the rock and then point, and the Swedes use a different release technique. When the Canadians do it, it could lead to them sometimes accidentally brushing the rock with their fingers. If it happens it might mean that they broke the rules and that that rock should be removed (or whatever it is they do), but it doesn’t mean that they’re intentionally cheating.

It really looks like they’re poking the rock with their fingers, why else would they point like that? But, I’ve seen enough people talking about the biomechanics of sports that I know that sometimes something that seems dumb like pointing might just be how they ensure that their bodies are aligned exactly the same way every time. It’s like how the Olympic pistol shooters have this weird posture with their hands in their pockets.

Yeah, as the article I linked indicated, a lot of players simply don’t consider it an infraction, and therefore don’t give a damn whether they do it.

And for probably the fifth time, I have no problem with the rule being enforced.

and how that’d go down lol.

What, getting your ass beat half to death by Olympian athletes?

Alright. If you are gonna argue that was an accident then you just aren’t someone worth discussing things with. My god…

Fair enough. I realize now that I spoke with more confidence on the reality of the situation than I intended. Any avid curler I’ve spoken with regarding this in the last couple days swears up and down that the level of interaction that supposidly occurred between the curler and the rock is genuinely a non-factor. I do not know from any level of personal experience, hence why I stated that I trust whatever Olympic panel exists. I merely wanted to counter the poor argument that “the rule wouldn’t exist if it can’t impact the rock,” as the rule can absolutely exist for the purpose of more clear cut cases.

Armchair analysis is rarely worth taking seriously. I suspect that neither of us actually know from experience, but maybe you’re a professional curler.

Insinuating that everyone always performs perfectly at the Olympics? I just watched a woman cry because she only landed a double-spin instead of a triple during the figure skating competiton. I supposed she didn’t land her jump on purpose too?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe he accidentally touched the rock, but I am shocked you find it so unbelievable that someone could be so focused on where their rock is going that they didn’t pay enough attention to how their hand was positioned after they let go of the rock. High pressure situations create surprising mistakes.

Nope, send them to a Red Oblast after they are forced to watch the Deliverance.

Its never a war crime the first time.

Hey, heys hey now.

… yeah you’re probably right.

You can’t cheat when it’s not a real sport

I’m kidding guys relax

I appreciate you finding that article - interesting one.

I’m very much amateur curler, and can’t see how that tiny touch would impact it, but maybe it does at that level of competition.

Using a perfect shot to stop on the button with no spin, and energy= all kinetic (1/2mv2) =friction energy(F*deltaX), we get a release speed of 1.8m/s (with a .006 coefficient), and a 2.98m/s speed (with a 0.016 coefficient).

Using the same equation, I go ahead and rerun the number, but adding a distance of 0.1m, a value I used as a good approximation of a reliable accuracy of an Olympic throw, and a time of 0.2s (the approximate time I estimated based on the video), which means a deltaX2 of 0.36m, or 0.596m.

1/2mv2+fapplieddeltaX2 = ffrictiondeltaX Fapplied comes out to 0.326N to 0.526N which is a miniscule amount.

That seems to indicate that a tiny touch DOES have the potential to make a significant difference. Some sources say 0.25 to 0.5N is required for a keyboard press, so its roughly on par with that

But, how much of a difference does the sweeping make on stone speed? Its easy to say that tiny change can impact things, but how does it compare to, say, sweeping hard vs not sweeping?

This study shows a sweeping change of 45+/-8mm. Thus a change of 25% on top of that is not insignificant.

So the last question is, does it make sense for someone to train specifically by cheating this way rather than doing it right and just pushing off with a more accurate force? That’s likely going to be subjective, but seems difficult to me.

Who knows, maybe this is a crutch and it is making a difference. Sounds like they need to stop doing it any case, whether a way they’ve trained or not. Or wear a camera showing they don’t touch the rock and just hover their finger behind it.

I mean the text in the op you see here is identical to the hexbear op. I opened it up and the vast majority are just talking about it as the news it is with some jokes scattered in. The account you’re replying to is one of a handful that have identical posting patterns, one of which being they near(?) exclusively post anti-china and anti-russia shit, deserved or otherwise.

I love curling drama.

Getting caught with “you can fuck off” on a hit mic doesn’t help either. Last thing anyone wants is for Canada to gain a reputation of cheating, especially after the drone scandal with the Canadian womens soccer team at the Paris Olympics in '24.

Ahead of the tournament, on 22 July, New Zealand players noticed a drone flying over their training session and reported this to local police.[2] Drone operating laws in France ban drones from being flown above people and ban recordings made by drones to be shared without the subjects’ consent. French police were already wary of drones in terms of security around the 2024 Summer Olympics.[1][3] Saint-Étienne police followed the drone and found and detained its operator, a member of the staff of the Canadian team. The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) then reported the incident to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) integrity unit, before making a public announcement the next day together with New Zealand Football, expressing their disappointment towards the Canadian team. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) then apologized to the NZOC and said they would review next steps with Canada Soccer and all the relevant governing bodies.[2][4]

The drone operator, analyst Joseph Lombardi, admitted after his arrest that he had also filmed another New Zealand training session on 19 July,[5] a fact later made public by the COC.[1][3] Though Lombardi immediately said that the spying was “a personal initiative”, the police found a text message exchange on his phone with assistant coach Jasmine Mander that indicated Mander knew of the spying.[6]

If you’re resorting to espionage please just accept that you suck and don’t do things that drag your nations reputation in the process.

Now you’ve just pissed off the cheaters and the curlers