Disappearing sledge
I live in Oslo and on the hills above the city is The Corkscrew. It’s the site of the bobsleigh track from the 1952 Winter Olympics. The ice walls are long gone, but what’s left is a steep twisty track with the top at the final metro stop, and the bottom a few stops further down. It’s ideal for sledging, and you can even rent sledges for a few hours.

So when my Dutch friend Micha came to stay we headed up there for an afternoon of sledge fun.

I was a bit annoyed that his sledge was faster than mine, even more so when his was faster even after we swapped. But I was very surprised to zoom round a corner and see him standing at the side of the track. He had managed to roll off the sledge going round a corner, and it had sped down the track without him.

So I got off the sledge and we started walking down the hill. A vigorous debate ensued. I was sure that his sledge would just skid off the track at the next corner, and we should look for it there. He was sure that it would turn the corners on its own, and we would find it at the bottom.

Being a man of science, I decided to prove through experimentation that I was right. So I launched my sledge down the hill, expecting it to veer off the track and into the deep snow at the first corner.

It didn’t.

Instead, just before the corner it made a dainty left turn and kept on going. We ran after it, got to the corner, looked down the hill, and saw nothing. Perhaps it has already rounded the next bend at high speed.

So we walked down the hill, carefully inspecting the sides of the track for any lost sledges. At the bottom we saw one sledge standing in the middle of the track. It was his.

It was quite difficult explaining to the hire people what had happened to their sledge.

So the result of that experiment is that if you launch a sledge down a hill, it will disappear.
(woodchopper likes chopping wood, Sat 26 Jul 2008, 11:22, Reply)