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Stick work - Page 2

Russell was willing to work with Hunt because the idea sounded interesting and because of her enthusiasm. “This is purely an extracurricular research interest that’s not tied to any class project,” he noted, adding that currently, “we’re at the beginning of the project and don’t have much data to report on yet.”

But, he said, this project, which will span several years during Hunt’s academic career, does have the potential to produce some interesting results.

As a recreational hockey player, Hunt initially wondered if any researchers had conducted studies on hockey sticks to determine why they break the way they do. “Dr. Russell and I did some research and found only a few minor studies on hockey sticks, primarily from a researcher at a university in Montreal,” she explained.

“There really isn’t much available in terms of studies that investigate the vibrational properties of composite and wood hockey sticks,” Russell said. “But the idea of using physics and acoustics to see if we can learn anything useful about hockey sticks is very compelling,” he added.

The initial question the two hope to examine is this: is there anything about how a hockey stick vibrates that influences its overall performance?

“We’re going to take an open-ended approach at first,” Russell said. “We’ll study vibration modes of different blades—wood and composite—and hopefully speak with hockey players, perhaps from the Flint Generals and ask them questions about hockey stick performance that might lead us in a specific direction.”

Overall, Russell and Hunt hope that they achieve important results, which could help stick manufacturers when developing new products for the sport.

And although this project is just beginning, Russell is pleased with Hunt’s desire to study the vibrational properties of sticks.

“It’s nice when a student comes to you and asks if they could talk about a potential research subject, especially when it has nothing to do with their classes,” he said.

As data becomes available, more stories on the progress of this research project will appear on the Kettering website in the approaching months. For more information about Kettering’s Physics program, visit http://www.kettering.edu/futurestudents/undergraduate/appliedphysics.jsp.

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