Ice Skating: Pressure Melting vs. Friction Heating

This 3D simulation slides a real skate-blade cross-section over ice and computes both proposed explanations for why skating works honestly, side by side. The Clausius–Clapeyron relation gives the exact (and genuinely tiny) melting-point depression from contact pressure, while a moving-heat-source estimate gives the frictional flash-heating temperature rise at the blade edge — the effect that actually dominates at real skating speeds and forms the thin lubricating meltwater film you can see and measure under the blade. Adjust skater mass, blade sharpness and contact length, skating speed, and ice temperature to see how each one shifts the balance, and drag the blade to give it a push.