http://innovations.coe.berkeley.edu/vol3-issue6-aug09/skateboard
"Daryl Chrzan, a noted researcher in the field of computational materials science, is a diehard skateboarder. Besides carving the bowls at local skate parks, Chrzan loves to think about the science behind the sport.
"The Berkeley professor of materials science and engineering considers such questions as the physics involved in stunts, the evolution of the skateboard wheel, the limits of a skateboard’s strength and even the g-forces experienced in spectacular spills. (((A generation of Sk8rboiz comes of age.)))
"For the past two years, Chrzan (Ph.D.’89 Physics) has posed—and tried to answer—those puzzles in a one-unit freshman seminar called Physics and Materials Science of Skateboarding. His hands-on class puts a new spin on a popular, if educationally unsung pastime.
“I skated almost nonstop between the ages of 13 and 18,” explains Chrzan, who grew up in Milwaukee but left his skateboard behind when he ventured off to college, graduate school and an academic career. Today, Chrzan’s scholarly work predicts the physical properties of metals and semiconductors based on their atomic composition...
