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Floris
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On the whole, static friction is higher than dynamic friction. This means that if you can brake without your wheels skidding, you will come to a halt more quickly. So let's assume that the truck brakes without skidding, and see where that gets us.

Let's assume that your truck has weight $W = Mg$ with a haystack with additional weight $w = mg$ on top. Coefficient of (static) friction between wheels and road is $\mu_1$, and friction between haystack and truck bed is $\mu_2$.

The normal force on the tires is $W+w$ and the maximum static friction is $\mu_1(W+w)$.

If the wheels stop in a distance $D$ and the hay stack can slide an additional distance $d$ on the truck bed, then the work done to bring the entire assembly to a halt (which must be equal to the kinetic energy we started with) is

$$\mu_1 (W+w) D + \mu_2 w d$$

If there was no movement of the haystack, $d=0$ and the second term would disappear.

So if we have to do the same amount of work to bring the truck to a halt in both cases, we can set the distance of the no-slide truck to $D'$ and we get the expression:

$$\mu_1 (W+w) D + \mu_2 w d = \mu_1(W+w) D'\\ D' = D + \frac{\mu_2 w }{\mu_1(W+w)}d$$

Since the second term is always greater than zero, the stopping distance will be longer for the truck that has the hay stack tied down (or otherwise not sliding).

On the whole, static friction is higher than dynamic friction. This means that if you can brake without your wheels skidding, you will come to a halt more quickly. So let's assume that the truck brakes without skidding, and see where that gets us.

Let's assume that your truck has weight $W = Mg$ with a haystack with additional weight $w = mg$ on top. Coefficient of (static) friction between wheels and road is $\mu_1$, and friction between haystack and truck bed is $\mu_2$.

The normal force on the tires is $W+w$ and the maximum static friction is $\mu_1(W+w)$.

If the wheels stop in a distance $D$ and the hay stack can slide an additional distance $d$ on the truck bed, then the work done to bring the entire assembly to a halt (which must be equal to the kinetic energy we started with) is

$$\mu_1 (W+w) D + \mu_2 w d$$

If there was no movement of the haystack, $d=0$ and the second term would disappear.

So if we have to do the same amount of work to bring the truck to a halt in both cases, we can set the distance of the no-slide truck to $D'$ and we get the expression:

$$\mu_1 (W+w) D + \mu_2 w d = \mu_1(W+w) D'\\ D' = D + \frac{\mu_2 w }{\mu_1(W+w)}d$$

Since the second term is always greater than zero, the stopping distance will be longer for the truck that has the hay stack tied down.

On the whole, static friction is higher than dynamic friction. This means that if you can brake without your wheels skidding, you will come to a halt more quickly. So let's assume that the truck brakes without skidding, and see where that gets us.

Let's assume that your truck has weight $W = Mg$ with a haystack with additional weight $w = mg$ on top. Coefficient of (static) friction between wheels and road is $\mu_1$, and friction between haystack and truck bed is $\mu_2$.

The normal force on the tires is $W+w$ and the maximum static friction is $\mu_1(W+w)$.

If the wheels stop in a distance $D$ and the hay stack can slide an additional distance $d$ on the truck bed, then the work done to bring the entire assembly to a halt (which must be equal to the kinetic energy we started with) is

$$\mu_1 (W+w) D + \mu_2 w d$$

If there was no movement of the haystack, $d=0$ and the second term would disappear.

So if we have to do the same amount of work to bring the truck to a halt in both cases, we can set the distance of the no-slide truck to $D'$ and we get the expression:

$$\mu_1 (W+w) D + \mu_2 w d = \mu_1(W+w) D'\\ D' = D + \frac{\mu_2 w }{\mu_1(W+w)}d$$

Since the second term is always greater than zero, the stopping distance will be longer for the truck that has the hay stack tied down (or otherwise not sliding).

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Floris
  • 119.5k
  • 13
  • 224
  • 406

On the whole, static friction is higher than dynamic friction. This means that if you can brake without your wheels skidding, you will come to a halt more quickly. So let's assume that the truck brakes without skidding, and see where that gets us.

Let's assume that your truck has weight $W = Mg$ with a haystack with additional weight $w = mg$ on top. Coefficient of (static) friction between wheels and road is $\mu_1$, and friction between haystack and truck bed is $\mu_2$.

The normal force on the tires is $W+w$ and the maximum static friction is $\mu_1(W+w)$.

If the wheels stop in a distance $D$ and the hay stack can slide an additional distance $d$ on the truck bed, then the work done to bring the entire assembly to a halt (which must be equal to the kinetic energy we started with) is

$$\mu_1 (W+w) D + \mu_2 w d$$

If there was no movement of the haystack, $d=0$ and the second term would disappear.

So if we have to do the same amount of work to bring the truck to a halt in both cases, we can set the distance of the no-slide truck to $D'$ and we get the expression:

$$\mu_1 (W+w) D + \mu_2 w d = \mu_1(W+w) D'\\ D' = D + \frac{\mu_2 w }{\mu_1(W+w)}d$$

Since the second term is always greater than zero, the stopping distance will be longer for the truck that has the hay stack tied down.