Friction is a force that resists the motion of an object across a surface.

it can be classified in to two

categories, static friction and kinetic friction. These two frictional forces can have two different
coefficient constants. The purpose of this experiment was to calculate the coefficient of kinetic
friction , the coefficient of static friction , and to verify the relationship between , and the weight
of an object. It was hypothesized that the frictional coefficients would be constant and that they
would stay constant even if mass was added to the block. It was also hypothesized that the force
due to friction would increase if the mass was increases. The force of friction can be calculated
using a motion detector and logger pro software that can generate a force vs. time graph. The
peak force seen at the beginning is the maximum static friction and the force after that the kinetic
friction. These forces can be graphed against the normal force of the block to generate a graph
with a linear trend. The slope of this function should give the coefficient of friction. Since the force
of friction, in this case kinetic friction, is , then .

In theory, coefficient of kinetic friction is a constant, and it should not change if the normal force
(in this case it is equal to the weight) on the object changes. To verify this, the block can be pushed
across the track and its acceleration due to frictional forces determined using a motion detector
and logger pro. The acceleration obtained using this method can be used to calculate the force
due to friction. The coefficient of friction can then be obtained by dividing this force by the normal
force.

Abstract

In this lab experiment, different aspects of friction were studied and tested. The main facets of
friction that were tested were the coefficients of static and kinetic friction. The experiments
consisted of testing when a sled would start to move. The first exercise took the sled and put it on
a friction plane, which was raised until the sled started to move. The second exercise took the sled
with added weight, and a hanging weight, and added weight until the sled started to move across
a level friction plane. The third experiment measured the acceleration of the sled as it fell, when
the friction plane was raised at different angles. The first two exercises were used to determine an
experimental value for the coefficient of static friction and the third was used to find the
coefficient of kinetic friction.