Born to CurlSome years ago I recall Tom Doran (former writer of many fine articles within these pages) told me that the granite used to make Curling stones is found only from one place in Scotland. I figured maybe I should look this up and say something about these stones as we have just finished this year's Winter Olympics. The location for these stones is an island called Ailsa Craig. It's about 10 miles off the west coast. It's small, maybe a mile in length and no one lives on it except rabbits. The granite found on Ailsa Craig is harder than others making it perfect for knocking about during a game. These stones are so durable that they generally last 20, 30 or more years of use. Not too shabby. More information about the physics of this can be found here. You can see the years of stone quarrying on the side of Ailsa Craig island.  Curling stones were not always so pretty and round. Back in the early days they looked a bit lumpy and didn't originally have a handle. This one does have a rusty handle, although it's definitely lumpy.  Early Curling Stone For more information about those early curling adventures check out this blog. And for those that want to know the deep physics of how a stone can float over ice smoothly check out this site. Curling isn't as easy as it looks. And if you discover that you are now a HUGE fan of curling and just can't get enough, well, consider Crocheting a hat for yourself. Come on... you KNOW you want to. 
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