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What happened during pairs skating in Salt Lake City?

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Final answer:

The ice-skating maneuver depicted relates to physics principles like conservation of momentum and Newton's Third Law. Assuming no friction, skaters would glide towards each other and meet at the center of mass. Upon clasping hands, they conserve angular momentum, resulting in faster spins when they reduce their rotation radius.

Step-by-step explanation:

The scenario described in the question is an example of an ice-skating maneuver that demonstrates principles of conservation of momentum and rotational dynamics. In pairs figure skating, when two skaters, initially at rest, pull themselves towards each other, they will start to move towards their common center of mass. Assuming there's no friction (an idealization, since in reality there would be some friction), they would meet at the center of mass without any external force applied.

Since the skaters have identical mass and pull towards each other with equal force, according to Newton's Third Law, they would move with equal but opposite velocities, such that their combined momentum remains zero. Upon locking hands and beginning to spin, they would conserve angular momentum, which implies that as they pull in their arms and reduce the radius of rotation, they will spin faster to maintain the angular momentum - a principle known as conservation of angular momentum.

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