Watch CBS News

Science Of Snow Tubing: Fast Rides With An Education

 By John Lauritsen, WCCO-TV

TAYLORS FALLS, Minn. (WCCO) -- The great thing about snow tubing is you don't have to be a great athlete to excel on a snow hill. But if you are striving for speed, it does help to know a little bit about science.

"It's got a little math, it's a little geometry, it's a little physics and at the end they have a little fun too," said Jack Van Soelen of Wild Mountain Ski and Snowboard in Taylors Falls.

Van Soelen is an expert on the science of snow tubing. On Wednesday, he took a group of junior high students from Da Vinci Academy in Blaine through a seven-step course that will teach them about friction, angles, energy and, probably the most important to them, speed.

The premise is to give students an idea of what it takes to fly down these hills.

"I learned that friction plays a very important part in snow tubing," said seventh-grader Anthony Brown.

"Here I learned that the more tubes you connect together, the faster you go," said sixth-grader Victor Krcma.

The students will take what they learned today and apply it to their physics class.

WCCO-TV's John Lauritsen Reports

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.