# Tag Info

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Simple (Wrong) Analysis Shoes Assuming the coefficient of friction on the ice is approximately the same for the tires and shoes. It would do just as much good to get into the plane as to try to push it. Both would increase the frictional force by at most $\mu\,m\,g$ Having established an upper bound for the effectiveness of pushing we can compare this to ...

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The answer is Yes and your thinking is correct. You try to differ between impact and sliding on a curve. In fact the impact is just a sudden large force, while a curved (e.i. circular) motion similarly applies a force, just much smaller but also over a longer period of time. The key in surviving any fall is to reduce the force on your body at "impact". A ...

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Let's make life easy for ourselves by assuming that the slide is an arc of a circle: We also assume the slide is made out of something with a very low friction, so the skydiver maintains a constant speed $v$ all the way round. The reason that using an arc of a circle makes life easy is that the acceleration felt by the skydiver is simply: $$a = ... 14 I have slid down a much smaller version of this at Burning Man. Paha'oha'o was a 30 foot tall volcano art piece which you climbed and then "sacrificed" yourself by dropping into a pit featuring a slide just like you mention. The drop features a 10 foot free-fall, just enough to take your breath away, after which the careful curve of the slide gently catches ... 8 Assuming terminal velocity of 200 km/hour, the scenario seems equivalent to stepping out of a car that's travelling at 200 km/hour. In that case it's not the fall (hitting the road) that kills you, it's the friction (i.e. sliding or tumbling along the road). There might be a minimum of friction initially (when you're falling parallel to a vertical wall) but ... 8 To add to Rick's answer: Rick is right that it is only the front wheel that is skidding. Most of the weight is over the main wheels (it is essential that the centre of gravity be close to the main wheels, to ensure the plane does not pitch when the wheels strike the ground on landing.) Only a small amount of weight is on the nosewheel. It would seem that ... 7 Probably the closest to what you are asking about is the story of Ivan Chisov's survival (see Ivan Chisov); but there have been several other similar cases (see for example 10 Amazing Free Fall Survivors). 2 Yes. In fact it would be better to imagine that you skydive towards a "track" that you can strap a "chair" onto, and then the chair is stuck on the track. the acceleration to keep you in a circular orbit of radius R is only v^2 / R; with terminal velocity being about v \approx 56 \text{ m/s} a 1~g acceleration will be accomplished by a radius of ... 2 Friction always opposes motion, so for example if the block is moving up the wall, the force of friction retards the motion and acts downward. If the block moves down, then the force of friction acts up. Basically, which ever way the block moves, the friction acts in the opposite direction. You pretty much said that yourself. You said in absence of a force ... 2 They produce heat because the surfaces on small scales are rough like canyons rather than flat like the ocean. As these rough surfaces come into contact with each other they repel. When two atoms are brought very close together they store potential energy. When they move apart that energy becomes kinetic. However, this kinetic energy generally isn't enough ... 2 Your image shows what is going on at the microscopic level between two surfaces. To understand why friction works, you have to look smaller, at the atomic level: and when you get to that point you're no longer taking about "friction" as we know it, but about physiochemical interactions between atoms and molecules. Those interactions are mediated by ... 2 The idea here is that static friction is larger than dynamic friction. This is something that depends on the nature of the materials in contact and is not in general true because friction is not a fundamental force: it is a result of some very complicated phenomena at a microscopic level. An explanation that does make sense to me is to think of the two ... 2 When considering whether two surfaces will have a high friction or a low friction when rubbed together, more important than whether they are individually smooth or rough is what the barrier to their passing actually is. Consider first two perfectly flat plates. Even if the two plates are made out of wood, which is rough, they slide relatively easily past ... 1 I propose redefining this problem as follows (because I'm not sure it has a solution the way the OP has defined it). Let y=f(x) be some symmetrical (around y) function like x^2. Let the point mass experience a friction force acc. to the usual simple model F_f=\mu F_N, with F_N the Normal force acting on the point mass in the point (x,y) (N ... 1 Normal force between blocks will be  N_1 = mg  and the normal force between the road and the larger block will be  N_2 = ( m + M ) g . So the friction forces are,$$ F_1 = {\mu \over 2} N_1 = {\mu \over 2} m g  F_2 = \mu N_2 = \mu ( m + M ) g  The total force on the bigger block will be $F_1 + F_2$ to the left. So the larger block will ...

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If it is static friction, then the two blocks are stuck together and both have the same acceleration. In that case, the top block has a net force of 40 N (100 N pull - 60 N friction) and the bottom block has 60 N (just from the friction). Since 60N < 80N max friction, then the ansatz that this is static friction is consistent.

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The problem is that you have not solved the question yet. What you have found is not the friction between the boxes. It is something else. As you actually state yourself, you have instead found the maximum [static] friction. This is just the maximum possible value and not at all necessarily equal to the actual friction. Static friction can be anything from ...

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You can't measure speed over the ground when you are moving in a boat unless you carefully observe nearby shore objects and measure your progress with a timepiece, or unless you have an instrument that measures speed against the bottom of the lake. It's quite likely that you saw wind waves washing past you, and attributed their apparent speed to your boat's ...

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First, you can have currents caused by something else that are pushing you one way while the wind is blowing the other. Second, as the other answer says, the ripples from the wind can be deceiving. Far from the shore, it's difficult to get a sense of speed relative to trees or docks. And the ripples on the surface don't always extend into the water itself ...

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Yes, frictional force does not depend on the area. This is clear from a simple mental experiment, think of a block resting on a surface. Assume it is a prism whose faces have different areas. Whichever face it is resting on, the friction force will be the same: when on the smaller surface, the contact is reduced compare with the case where the resting face ...

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As @rmhleo pointed out in his answer, the frictional force doesn't depend on the surface area, because no matter which part of the object is in contact with the other surface, the total normal force (and thus the total frictional force) is unchanged. However, that assumes a couple of simplifying conditions: namely, that the two surfaces are consistent in ...

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A year has passed since this question was posed, and as luck would have it, this week a paper appeared on the science preprint repository 'ArXiv' discussing exactly this phenomena. The preprint (PDF) is available here. Key to the phenomenon of spectacular friction forces between two interleaved phone books is a simple geometrical conversion of the traction ...

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$N$ is always perpendicular to the surface exerting it (that's what the "normal" in "normal force" means). A friction is always parallel to the surface. So, yes, $f_s$ is always perpendicular to $N$. If the surface is horizontal then $N$ and $mg$ are both vertical. Any $f_s$ would have to be horizontal. If the forces add up to zero (if the object is not ...

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When one analyzes an object using a free-body diagram, one generally considers the possibility of all reasonable forces and eliminates the ones which are not likely to contribute to the acceleration of the object or are summarized by other forces. For the object resting on a horizontal table in a gravitational field we immediately recognize there is a ...

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There are four forces to consider: 1) Gravity, acting downward 2) The push from the person. You said an acute angle, but that could mean either upward or downward because there are two directions from the horizontal. In the end, the analysis procedure is the same (but the results aren't). 3) The normal force of the wall on the block, acting ...

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we often confuse or loosely say that friction opposes motion but it should be kept in mind that it opposes the "relative motion" so if two bodies are moving opposite to each other then we need to change the frame of reference from earth to the body and check what is the direction of relative velocity. once determined we can clearly say that the direction of ...

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Friction exerted by wall on the block acts in the opposite direction of the impending motion (or motion) of the block relative to wall. Yep, that's your answer. In absence of F and fs, the object will move vertically downwards. (F is required to keep the block in contact with the wall) So fs acts vertically upwards? Why are you discarding F? F is holding ...

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