The Physics Of Figure Skating

Why Do Figure Skaters Wear Gloves?

Since figure skaters start most upright spins with their hands out, very skillful skaters can spin so quickly that centripetal force will force blood that would normally circulate in their arms to pool in their hands, leading to very noticeable swelling. Since figure skaters are very conscious of their figure and do not want their puffy hands on TV, compression gloves are common during figure skating competitions.

Spin Mechanics

How Can Skaters Spin So Long With Such Slow Entry Speeds?

Above all, this is a conservation of mechanical energy problem. First, it is important to realize a spinning figure skater is not pivoting on a point on the ice! Observe this gif of a spinning skater:

As you can see, a spin actually involves skating backward in a small circle while simultaneously dragging a small portion of the toepick to maintain balance and prevent skidding. However, using as little toepick as possible is considered best practice in spinning (because it dissipates energy through friction), so we will ignore it for the most part when discussing the physics of spinning.

To go from forward skating to a spin, a skater steps onto a forward outside edge of his skate (that is, they are skating forward such that their body is on the outside of the circle he is making). Then, he shifts his weight to the front of his skate (if the entry speed is fast, he may even hook into the ice with the toepick) and swings his body around to quickly turn from a forward outside to backward inside edge This turn takes place with practically zero additional friction on the ice, so all the skater needs to do is carefully balance on the new backward inside edge and "go along" with the skate's natural tendency to tighten the circle to spin!

How Does Physics Apply To That?

All of this put together means that a spinning skater does not actually have to convert their linear motion into pure rotational motion, as pivoting on one point is costly in terms of total energy since the skate would be carving a hole in the ice. Rather, a skater can simply do a skillful tight turn to continue to use their "skating energy" to give the illusion of pivoting spin!