Science of the Winter Olympics - Slapshot (Hockey)

One of the most popular team sports in the Winter Olympics is hockey. More than just a physical game, for scientists, it's a showcase for physics on ice--especially when it comes to the slapshot. Three-time Olympian Julie Chu, Thomas Humphrey, a senior scientist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and Katharine Flores, an associate professor in the department of materials science and engineering at Ohio State University, break down the science of hockey's hardest shot.

NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, has teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to produce Science of the Olympic Winter Games, a 16-part video series that explores the science behind individual Olympic events, including Downhill and Aerial Skiing, Speed Skating and Figure Skating, Curling and Hockey, and Ski Jumping, Bobsledding and Snowboarding.

This groundbreaking project between the NSF and NBC Learn uses the global spotlight of the Olympics to make science more accessible and more interesting to students by showing how science helps athletes fulfill the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius--Swifter, Higher, Stronger. Read more about the "Science of the Olympic Winter Games" at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/olympics/.