The Physics of Ice Skating

In February my friends and I went to the ice palace. In this picture we are skating together with our arms linked and playing the game where you spin in a circular motion with the person on the inside as our axis. The person on the outside of the line gets swung around and when they let go they go really fast. When our arms are all linked, we are generally moving in a uniform circular motion with the centripetal force coming from friction. When the person on the outside lets go, they move in a straight line, instead of continuing in a circle, because inertia causes us to resist change in motion and direction. When we whip the outside person around, we are exerting a torque. Torque = force x lever arm. The force comes from our bodies as we use our arms to push the outside person forward and the lever arm is measured from the axis (the inside person) to the force (which comes from the person next to the outside person), they the torque exerted on the outside person will be larger if you have more people in your line, because then the lever arm is longer.