In the sport of curling, a player slides (or "throws") a 40-lb granite stone along a sheet of ice. The thrower releases the stone at the "hogline," which is 93 ft away from the center of the intended target. The coefficient of kinetic friction between the stone and ice is μk = 0.020.
A) Draw a free-body diagram of the stone as it passes the midway point on the sheet (long after the thrower has released it).
B) What is the net force on the stone (both magnitude and direction) at the midway point?
C) How fast (in mph) should the thrower release the stone at the hogline, in order to get it to stop in the center of the target on the other end of the sheet?
D) In competitive events, two "sweepers" rapidly brush the ice ahead of the stone, in order to tweak the friction coefficient slightly. If they make just a 5% mistake—i.e., they create ice with μk = 0.021 instead of 0.020—how far away from the center of the target will the stone stop, using the throw speed you found in part C?