Every four years, we watch the stakes for Olympic figure skaters get higher, as they try to increase rotation in the air with their triple axels and quadruple toe loops. How do they do that? It's a scientific principle that we asked Olympic hopeful Rachael Flatt, and Deborah King, an associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences at Ithaca College, to help explain.

Increasing the time of a collision from a tenth of a second to two tenths of a second can make a huge difference in the number of G's a driver experiences. The car, the track, seat belts, and seat construction spread out the force of impact and save lives.

Curling has been in the Winter Olympics for four years now, but it still seems a little strange to most of us. John Shuster, the captain--or "skip"--of the U.S. Curling Team in Vancouver, explains this unusual sport, and NSF-funded scientists Sam Colbeck, a retired scientist from the U.S. Army Cold Regions Lab and physicist George Tuthill of Plymouth State University explain the friction that makes it all work.

The winter games in Vancouver provide a chance for the United States' four-man bobsled team to win its first gold medal in more than 60 years. And with the help of Paul Doherty, senior scientist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, Deborah King, associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences at Ithaca College, physicist George Tuthill of Plymouth State University, and bobsled designer Bob Cuneo, the team explains how they hope to accomplish this feat.

In February, Olympic skiers such as Julia Mancuso, Ted Ligety, Marco Sullivan and Scott Macartney will race down Vancouver's Whistler Mountain at speeds of up to 90 miles an hour. Paul Doherty, senior scientist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and Sam Colbeck, a retired scientist from the U.S. Army Cold Regions lab, explain the physics of this downhill thrill ride.

In the sport of freestyle aerials, skiers are judged on their ability to perform complex jumps in the air. Emily Cook, a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Freestyle team, and Paul Doherty, a Senior Scientist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, show how these jumps actually come from three basic twisting techniques that you can try in your own classroom.

Anyone can go fast straight: The challenge is turning. It takes more than ten thousand pounds of force to get a racecar around Turn 3 at Texas Motor Speedway at 180 mph. All that force comes from four tiny patches of rubber--the only thing keeping the car on the track and out of the wall.

NASCAR tires don't have "air pressure" because they're filled with nitrogen. The culprit responsible for increasing tire pressure during a race is friction. Using dry nitrogen gas helps the team predict how hot the tire will get and how much the pressure will "build" during a race.

850 horses all lined up--that's how much power a NASCAR Sprint Cup engine has. The engine's job is to convert the energy in fuel to speed. NASCAR engines do it faster and more efficiently than passenger car engines.

NASCAR corners are divided into three parts because the car's grip changes in different parts of a turn. The higher center of gravity in the new car challenges crew chiefs to minimize weight shift around a turn. Equipment like the seven-post rig helps, but the ultimate test is on the track.