This article is reprinted from The Professional Skier.
All copyrights apply.
Please see our copyright and disclaimer notice page. Conventional wisdom holds that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. While this is true, it may surprise you to discover that the fastest route between two points is not necessarily that hallowed straight line. If, as a ski coach, you think your racers can turn in faster times by taking a straight line between gates, you may be interested in a study I conducted that showed that the fastest line between two points on a ski slope is very often a cycloid curve. This theory, first observed by the Swiss scientist Johan Bernoulli in 1696, holds that the path of a particle sliding without friction from A to B under the force of gravity is not a straight line, but a cycloid curve.