How Does Friction Work?
Samantha Zang
Sarah Bomrad
Emily Pambianco
What is friction?
• Friction is one of the most significant
phenomena in the physical world
• Surface resistance to relative motion; the
rubbing of the surface of one body against
that of another
• Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
was one of the first scholars to
study friction systematically.
What is friction
• Force is so fundamental that it defies full
explanation, and compared to force, friction is
relatively easy to identify
• Friction plays a part in the total force that must
be opposed in order for movement to take place
in many situations
• Weight is another term for gravitational force and
is an important factor in friction
Force to do friction
• EQUATION
• F=μN=μmg
 Where μ is the coefficient of friction (either
static or kinetic), and N is the normal force. On
a horizontal plane, the normal force is just the
weight of the object, which is mg.
A Powerful Force
• Friction can prove to be a very powerful force
even when dealing with small scale objects.
• Ex: Phone Book Friction Video
Friction in Everyday Life
• Driving a car: The force of friction encompasses the entire
operation of a car and makes the tires possible to turn on the
road. Tires are designed with a degree of tread that helps
maintain a high degree of friction to allow the tire to grip tightly
to the road and keep control. If there was no tread, there would
be no friction and the car would not be able to stop at the
appropriate time.
Friction in Everyday Life
• Lighting a match: This has to do with friction because as you strike a
match to be lit, friction creates enough heat to ignite a chemical
compound in the match head that allows the rest of the match to continue
to burn.
Friction in Everyday Life
• Using your computer’s mouse pad: Friction occurs between the mouse
and the desktop or mouse pad. Friction is required to move the mouse
and have it respond appropriately. If you were to use a different kind of
material for a mouse pad, such as a piece of sand paper, the mouse is
harder to move. The piece of sand paper has more friction than the
mouse pad.
Friction in everyday life
• If we lived in a world with no friction, things may be a bit more
chaotic. Automobiles, airplanes and other vehicles would have a
tough time trying to slow down or stop because they would be
trying to brake on a frictionless surface. This would be like trying to
stop on an ice skating rink. There would be nothing to grip to the
surface.
• Doing actions as simple as walking, writing, and eating would be
impossible. Everything would be sliding around, never staying put.
This could get very dangerous when we think about large bodies of
water, or enormous structures not staying in place because we lived
in a frictionless world.
• Gravity would become the defining force.
Bibliography
• http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/friction?s=t
• http://www.scienceclarified.com/everyday/Real-Life-Chemistry-Vol-3Physics-Vol-1/Friction.html
• http://www.scienceclarified.com/everyday/Real-Life-Chemistry-Vol-3Physics-Vol-1/Friction-Real-life-applications.html
• http://www.articlesbase.com/k-12-education-articles/friction-for-children-4tricks-to-help-children-understand-friction-1416598.html
• http://www.nanoworld.org/frictionmodule/content/0200makroreibung/0400historisch/0100le
onardo/?=lang=en - Da Vinci
• http://www.school-for-champions.com/science/friction.htm - Friction Force
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOt-D_ee-JE - Video
• http://ffden2.phys.uaf.edu/211_fall2002.web.dir/ben_townsend/staticandkineticfriction.
htm - Car Image
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tire_tread.jpg - Tire Tread
• http://jdaya15.wordpress.com/best-works/science-m/friction - Match