The surprising enigma of slippery ice

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many of the events in the Winter Olympics involve some sort of sliding or slipping on ice—in a skillful, controlled way. Those moves often seem effortless, but the physics behind what makes them possible is messy. For centuries, scientists have been trying to figure out why ice is slippery. In this episode of Science Quickly, host Kendra Pierre-Louis laces up her skates to explore the slippery truth behind that deceptively simple question. She’s joined by science journalist Paulina Rowińska and physicists Daniel Bonn and Martin Müser, who take us through various competing theories and explain how we may finally have a winner. Recommended Reading: “Why Is Ice Slippery? A New Hypothesis Slides Into the Chat,” by Paulina Rowińska, in Quanta Magazine. Published online December 8, 2025 E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:31.6	So we're out here today in Lower Manhattan, ice skating.
0:39.3	There are lots of kids skating around, dudes in hockey skates,
0:43.3	and I'm here getting my inner Michelle Kwan on.
0:46.3	If you really think about it, ice skating is just controlled slipping on ice.
0:52.3	And whenever I go skating, I can't help but think about the Winter Olympics,
0:56.0	like the ones that are happening right now in Italy.
0:58.0	Welcome inside the Cortina Curling Olympics Stadium.
1:02.0	The United States mixed curling duo of Cory Dropkin and Corey T.C.
1:06.0	Faces Team Canada in a matchup of unbeaten teams. And watching the Olympics, I started to realize that if
1:14.5	you really think about it, so many of the Winter Olympic sports are just about controlled slipping
1:19.6	on ice, like bob sledding, the luge curling. And yet scientists still don't really know why
1:26.2	ice is slippery. Sure, they have theories, like the pressure that we put on the ice, maybe melts the ice,
	...

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