Introduction

Background and Review of Literature

The first hockey stick was invented between 1852 and 1856. Recently, it was appraised at $4 million US and sold for $2.2 million US. The stick was carved by the Mi’kmaq natives from Nova Scotia and was made with Hornbeam or also known as ironwood. The earlier sticks looked like today’s field hockey stick. These sticks became so popular that the natives couldn’t make enough. The Starr Manufacturing Company took over and called their sticks Mic Macs after the original makers.

Figure 1: Oldest Hockey Stick, 1852-1856

In 1928 a laminated wood stick was invented. This is when pieces of wood were laminated together. Then the Fibreglass hockey stick was invented in the 1970’s. This stick was also laminated. This stick was designed to be stronger, lighter and more responsive. In 1981, Easton Hockey introduced the first aluminium hockey stick. It revolutionized the stick industry and gained popularity from the National Hockey League professional players. Then in 1982 a Swiss Factory, Composites Busch SA, introduced the first one-piece composite stick. Today, millions of hockey players from youth to pros enjoy the advantages and benefits of sticks made from space age composite materials.

An Introduction to Hockey Sticks

Definition: A long-handled stick used for hockey.
Parts of an Ice Hockey Stick: The Ice Hockey Stick has two distinct parts (see fig 2)
1. One of the parts is the actual shaft. The shaft is like the foundation of the actual hockey stick. This is the part of the stick that you hold on to and its flexing properties will deliver energy to a struck puck.
2. The second part is the blade. This is the horizontal part of the hockey stick. This is the part of the stick that shoots or carries the puck.

Figure 2: Parts of a Hockey Stick

History of the Material Development of the Ice Hockey Stick
1. Wood: The first stick, which was wood, was invented between 1852 to 1856. The Mi’kmaq Natives from Nova Scotia carved it and made it with Hornbeam which is also known as ironwood. The stick is shown in fig 3.
2. Laminated Wood: In 1928 a laminated wood stick was invented. This is when pieces of wood are laminated together. By laminating the wood, the hockey stick could be bent more without reaching the breaking point. An example is shown in fig 4.
3. Fibreglass: The Fibreglass hockey stick was invented in the 1970’s. This stick was also laminated but the fibreglass construction made it bend even more but the initial design goals were to make the stick stronger, lighter and more responsive.
4. Aluminum: In 1981, Easton Hockey introduced the first aluminum hockey stick. It revolutionized the stick industry and gained popularity from the professional NHL players.
5. Composite: In 1982, a Swiss Factory, Composites Busch SA, introduced the first one-piece composite stick An example is shown in fig 5.

Figure 3: The First Stick	Figure 4: A Classical Laminate Wooden Stick from Sherwood
	Figure 5: A Modern One-Piece Composite Stick from Easton

How Hockey Sticks Shoot the Puck

          When a hockey player uses his stick to shoot a puck or any other object, the result of the puck movement is the result of two different parts. One, especially with a slapshot, the player takes the stick back and uses his body and arm strength to strike the puck as hard as possible. It would be no different as a carpenter with his hammer striking a nail. The harder the swing, the faster the hitting object will strike the target with more force.

          The second part which requires more skill and technique makes use of the special properties of the stick being able to bend and store energy. Like an elastic band or an archer pulling back on his bow, effort by the user to bend the stick will store energy in the stick which when released as the stick makes contact with the puck will add additional force to project the puck. A hockey player does this by striking the blade of the stick on the ice just before the puck. This action causes the shaft of the stick to bend and store energy (see fig 6). As the player continues his swing toward the puck, the shaft begins to snap back and releases energy onto the puck.

          Timing the actions of 1 and 2 takes skill. One without the other will cause the puck speed off the stick to not reach its maximum. For example, if the player’s blade hits the ice way before the puck, the snapping back of the stick will happen way before the path of the stick meets the puck. By then, the puck will not have benefited from the releasal of energy from the shaft.
                                                                                                                           Figure 6: Flexing A Stick to Create Energy
          However, it is still important to match the player’s strength to bend the shaft in order to get any energy storage to release. Too much stiffness or too much flex in the shaft of the stick can affect the timing as well as the ability to release energy.

Nevertheless during this past winter, thousands of young children across Canada tried to emulate their NHL hockey heroes by mightily swinging their hockey sticks to strike a puck in search of that elusive perfect slapshot. Many have unfortunately fallen victims to the marketing geniuses and bought that “magic” stick that promises to deliver that perfect shot. It is also unfortunate that these sticks are often very expensive [2]. Now, can money really buy the perfect shot?

The Concepts of Potential and Kinetic Energy

In the world of hockey, performance of a hockey stick can be very subjective; for example, how it feels and “handle”. But for many, performance can also be very measured and is done so by assessing how effective it can be used to shoot a puck accurately and with force. Simply seen, a hockey stick is but a tool by which one imparts energy and transfers generated energy onto another object; eg, a puck.

We learned from last year’s experiment that part of that generated energy is related to how a hockey stick stores energy caused by bending it prior to striking the puck. Another component of the energy and which is unrelated to the stick’s material composition’s effect on bending is the energy that is attributable to a player swinging the stick. Like a carpenter swinging his hammer to strike a nail, a hockey player swings his stick at the puck. In both cases, the object receiving the impact of the swung tool will feel a greater force if either the tool is greater in mass and if the tool is swung faster [3].. The faster both swings his “tool” at the object and the more mass the tool is, the greater the force felt by the struck object.

The above observations are examples of the scientific property know as kinetic energy and the latter is described in the formula:

K = ----- x M x V²

where K is the kinetic energy possessed by a moving object and which will be transferred to another object,

M is the mass of the moving object and

V is the speed of the moving object