OVER THE EDGE Volume 11 Issue 11 Editor-in-Chief Carolynne Burkholder Managing Editor Stephanie Wilson News Editor Kathleen De Vere Arts Editor Maggie Gilbert Office Manager Travis Nielsen Photo Editor Travis Nielsen Production Coordinator Belinda Li Copy Editor Earson Gibson Ad Manager Russell VanderEnde Opinion Editor Jonas Gagnon Technical Advisor Eric Chlebek Staff Writers Adam Hussein Colin VanderEnde Barry Wolfenden Tanya Alvarez Bryna Casey Photographers Dana Schwehr Becky Booth Marlon Francescini Ashley Martin Production Assistants Dana Schwehr Tanya Alvarez John Treleaven Contributors Caleb Behn Cosanna Preston Jonathan Woodward Emily Elias Over The Edge is the official publish- ing media of students at the University of Northern British Columbia. As such, it is our mandate to report on issues of interest to stu- dents in the Northern Region. We encourage all students, both on the main and regional campuses to sub- mit to Over The Edge. Over the Edge is part of the Canadian University Press network of papers, otherwise known as CUP. CUP is an organization that is entirely owned by member papers, and provides such services as a newswire and advertising to Over The Edge. Over THE EDGE 3333 University Way Prince George, BC V2N 4A6 PHONE 960-5633 Fax 960-5407 EMAIL OVER-THE-EDGE@UNBC.CA Shegelski explains how curling works CONTINUED FROM COVER circular contact ring. When you spin it and slide it, it curls in the opposite way to a curling rock.” Shegelski explained that a drinking glass that is spun clockwise curls to the left rather than to the right because a sliding object has the tendency to tip forward and pushes down on the sliding sur- face more at the front than at the back. Since the lateral motion of a clockwise-rotat- ing glass at the front is to the right, the friction is in the opposite direction to the left. Friction increases proportionally with the amount of force, so the friction at the front is greater than friction at the back and causes the glass to curl to the left. . When Shegelski arrived at UNBC, he teamed up with Dr. Ross Niebergall, a math professor at UNEC to generate an explanation for the prob- lem. Shegelski worked on the theoretical physics, while Niebergall performed the computations. The model that Shegelski made was a “simple possibility,” hypothesizing that the curling rock has friction properties opposite to that of a drink- ing glass because it melts the ice it slides on. “What I thought was [the ice] will melt more at the front than at the back because the force pushing down is more at the front, so there will be more melting and better lubrication. That will make the friction less at the front than at the back,” explained Shegelski. . After performing some calculations, he found that there was enough energy in a sliding curling rock to melt the ice. With the aid of the Prince George Curling Club and fellow UNEC physicist Dr. Erik Jensen, Shegelski performed various experiments to test his theory after he wrote his first paper to explain his model: “Most of the guys worked very hard for us. They scraped the whole sheet of ice and put down black thread and skinny red ribbons so we had a grid-like checkerboard. Then we put a camera up on a mount. We’d curl a rock, slide the camera down the ice and collected a bunch of data,” said Shegelski. He found that the results of his experiment worked very well with his theory. After improving his model, he concluded that a thin liquid film resembling a soap bubble forms underneath a curling rock when it slides and causes it to curl in the direction that it is spun. Since the liquid film is so thin, it freezes as soon as the curling rock passes over and cannot be seen. Like all other scientists, Shegelski realized that “a complete, totally satisfactory understanding would take more work; so there’s still more to be done.” However, he is content enough with his expla- nations now to “go do some other work on other areas” since “the curling stuff has always been for fun.” PHOTO BY DANA SCHWEHR Curler Josh Hammersteadt doesn’t contemplate physics as he throws his rock at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. Shegelski’s most recent paper on curling rocks was co-authored by Jensen and was published in the fall of 2004 in the Canadian Journal of Physics. Discount airline Jetsgo falls from sky, stranding travellers, ruining travel plans and inconveniencing students CONTINUED FROM COVER Debaters don’t take things like this with their mouths shut, said Ohayon. In efforts co-ordinat- ed through an Internet forum, debaters from across the country have been talking to sponsors to fund the expense as well as phoning Transport Canada, the prime minister’s office and Jetsgo itself. “Shouldn't they be changing their name to ‘Jetsstop’?” asked Ohayon. The National Debating Championships, a tournament that features public speaking con- tests and structured argumentation, might have some new topics to discuss, she said. “How about: “You’re in a room with the owner of Jetsgo. What do you do?’ It would get some creative responses. It’s one of the things that peo- ple have strong opinions about now.” Students from UNBC were also put out by the sudden demise of the airline, as three members of Over the Edge had the unpleasant surprise of finding out their flight to Vancouver for the Western Regional Canadian University Press conference had been abruptly cancelled. “We booked our tickets less _ than 24 hours before they declared bankruptcy. Jetsgo gave absolutely no indication that there was anything wrong. I don’t understand why they waited until the very last second to cancel their flights.” Stephanie Wilson “T’m livid,” said Over the Edge’s Managing Editor Stephanie Wilson. “We booked our tickets less than 24 hours before they declared bank- ruptcy. Jetsgo gave absolutely no indication that there was anything wrong. I read that they knew the company was going to shut down on Wednesday. I don’t understand why they waited until the very last second to cancel their flights.” One delegate from the conference was forced to miss it altogether because of difficulties sched- uling a return trip. Wilson was forced to come back from the conference on Wednesday, missing three extra days of school because it was the ear- liest she could afford to fly back. The third dele- gate managed to catch a ride in a car heading back from Vancouver, but the delay caused her to miss a midterm on Monday. Montréal entrepreneur Michael Leblanc founded Jetsgo in 2002 from the ashes of Canada 3000, which also collapsed dramatically during the post-September 11 travel chill. The embattled airline had recently come under investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada after one of its planes skidded off the runway at the Calgary International Airport, hit a sign, then took off and landed safe, ly on January 20. On March 4, a departing Jetsgo plane left debris on a Toronto airport runway, and on March 5, an engine leak diverted a plane from Toronto to South Carolina.