The Effects of torsional stiffness on the skiability of downhill skis.

The goal of this MQP is to determine the effects of torsional stiffness in skis on skiing performance. Part of this is designing and building two beams with the same longitudinal stiffness but differing torsional stiffness. The stiffness is governed by the orientation of fiberglass sheets provided by Burton Snowboard Company. A series of lab tests are being used to quantify the torsional and longitudinal stiffness of the skis produced. An on-snow test compared the two skis\u27 performance against each other and their retail equivalent, the Rossignol 9X Course. On-snow tests show that there is little difference between the two skis built during the MQP and their skiability compares favorably with the racing skis supplied by Rossignol. This suggests that the difference in the two skis torsional stiffness is not large enough to be detect[ed] while skiing