friction

     

Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of two surfaces in contact or a surface in contact with a flui (e.g. air on an aircraft or water in a pipe). It is not a fundamental force, as it is derived from electromagnetic forces between atoms and electrons, and so cannot be calculated from first principles, but instead must be found empirically. When contacting surfaces move relative to each other, the friction between the two objects converts kinetic energy into thermal energy, or heat. Friction between solid objects is often referred to as dry friction or sliding friction and between a solid and a gas or liquid as fluid friction. Both of these types of friction are called kinetic friction. Contrary to popular credibility, sliding friction is not caused by surface roughness, but by chemical bonding between the surfaces. Surface roughness and contact area, however, do affect sliding friction for micro- and nano-scale objects where surface area forces dominate inertial forces.Internal friction is the motion-resisting force between the surfaces of the particles making up the substance.

Trivia about friction

  • An alloy called babbitt metal is used to line bearings & bushings to reduce this
  • (Here's Bill Nye):"It's hard to walk across ice because there's not much of this force that keeps your feet from slipping"
  • A type of insulating tape is named for this force that resists movement
  • (Sarah of the Clue Crew pulls a tablecloth out from under a plate.) The silkiness of the tablecloth & the smoothness of the table & plate combine to reduce this force to a minimum--don't try this at home
  • (Jon of the Clue Crew reports from the Consumer Reports road test facility.) Consumer Reports checks out how well a car stops when its wheels are on different surfaces with its "split-mu" area, mu standing for coefficient of this
  • Not tightness per se, but this kinetic force gives knots their holding power
  • (Jon of the Clue Crew gives the clue from behind a lab table.) When put on paper, graphite's lubricant properties reduce this force that resists relative motion
  • (Jon of the Clue Crew presents a textbook physics experiment.) Interweave two books together & you won't be able to pull them apart, because the spine compresses the pages & creates this force between each page
  • A machine developed by Sidney James measures slippery surfaces' COF, coefficient of this
  • Blisters can be caused by this resistance to motion between surfaces, from the Latin for "to rub"