Lazy vs. hard, where does the energy go?

[Zone]

One of the question laying in bed late at night for the physicists/metaphysicists...

When carving down the hill, lazy/flegmatic/let-the-board-ride vs. dynamic/push-pulling-hard/you-ride-that-board.....where does all that energy you spend go?

?spraying more snow, deeper trenches, more scraping (ooh that's a bad word) noise,faster.....or none of the above (just like an Audi diesel can be fast but also very quiet and efficient). Maybe I should just go back to sleep:sleep:

[Justin A.]

All that energy is used to change your velocity. The side effect is the snow being shot out of the trench that you're digging, and the noises, etc. It requires a force to change velocity (remember that velocity is speed AND direction, so even turning at a constant speed, you're changing your velocity) and that force comes from your exertion. I think.

[pebu]

Also part of the forces in there are the forces that keep you from hitting the snow. I mean, how can somebody be lain out flat 3 inches from the ground, but not falling???

[BadBrad]

The energy turns into heat in your quadriceps. Feel those thighs burning when you do hard carving?

[b0ardski]

Also part of the forces in there are the forces that keep you from hitting the snow. I mean, how can somebody be lain out flat 3 inches from the ground, but not falling???

alot of that energy is transmuting centrifical force into negative gravity allowing you to temporarily hover 3 in. over the ground while cantalevered from the edge of the board

[pebu]

Right. It was more or less a rhetoric question. I may not know everything about physics, but I know enough to not even attempt to figure out all the forces in carving.

Hovering 3 inches from the ground has something to do with continuously falling and all that junk. But this isn't physics class.

The thing that makes you tired is changing velocity. Remember, velocity includes both speed and direction. When you're lazy/the board is driving you, you don't really change velocity very hard and gravity just sort of has it's way with you. When you're driving your board, you're fighting gravity (among a kajillion other forces) with everything you've got. That's what makes you tired.