ACTIVITY GUIDE

Activity 5- Friction
(adapted and modified from “Friction Quantitative Lab” by Steve Banasiak)

I. Introduction

In the language of physics, physical phenomena such as motion can be

described quantitatively and qualitatively. This can be done by taking into
account the physical quantities such as displacement, velocity and
acceleration in a branch of physics known as Kinematics. This branch looks
upon the motion without considering what causes or even started the motion. But what
if one is interested on how the object started to move, that is, what causes the motion
to occur?

Question such as this points to one direction- Forces, which is being studied in
Mechanics. It is in this branch that a force (naturally a push or a pull) is being
considered, along with the object’s responses to it and the interaction in between.

While there exists both contact and non-contact forces around us, we focus our
investigation in this activity to friction- a force generated by two surfaces in
contact. It is a contact force further classified as static and kinetic. Static friction is a
force that prevents two surfaces in contact from sliding or slipping across each other-
the same force that allows you to accelerate forward when you run. This is
found as a “grip”, which allows your feet to push the ground backwards which
eventually receive a forward push as the ground’s reaction (Newton’s 3rd Law).
Meanwhile, even if two forces are sliding past each other, the tendency of frictional
force to occur is still at hand. In this situation, we find that Kinetic friction which
always opposes the sliding motion is present in between the sliding surfaces. This type
of friction tries to reduce the speed at which the surfaces are sliding across each other.

This activity entitles a student to witness a simulation of the phenomena and discover
how frictional forces are being calculated. The purpose is to understand the
relationship between the frictional and the normal force.

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 II. Materials & Equipment

• Laptop or Mobile Phone ( capable of acessing and running Phet

Simulation)
• Internet Connection
• Phet Simulation by University of Colorado Boulder
• Vernier Graphical AnalysisTM
• Activity Guide
• Activity Data Sheet

III. Procedure
1. In your internet browser
(preferably Google Chrome), open
the Phet Simulation on “Forces and
Motion: Basics” thru the link
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/
forces-and-motion- basics/latest/forces-
and-motion-
basics_en.html
2. Select “Friction”
Figure 1. Simulation Interface A

Exercise A: Kinetic Friction

(Data Gathering)

1. Click Forces, Sum of Forces,

Values and Masses as shown in
Figure 2.

2. Solve for the Force of gravity

(Weight) for each mass and fill- in
Table A in the Activity Data Sheet.

3. For each mass in Table A, push the

object until it is moving fast
then let go. Figure 2. Simulation Interface B

4. The friction force by the red arrow will be your Friction value (should be
94N for first object).

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(Data Processing & Analysis A)

1. To analyze the data, download the Vernier Graphical AnalysisTM thru

https://www.vernier.com/product/graphical-analysis-4/
2. Open the program and select Manual Entry
3. Title your X values FN with units N. This is the Normal Force which
should be a positive number and with same magnitude (size or number) as the
Force of Gravity.
4. Title your Y values Ffk with units N. This will be the Kinetic Friction.
(Ignore direction for this graph, all values should be positive)
5. Title your graph Kinetic vs. Normal Force
6. Sketch the graph after adding your line of best fit
7. Record the m(slope) and b(y-int) value
8. Write your y=mx+b model in the Data Sheet

The slope here represents our coefficient of friction (µ) which you can think
of as a measure of the stickiness between two surfaces. It is a measure of the ratio
of friction and normal force. The subscript ‘k’ next to the µ indicates we are
talking about kinetic friction’s coefficient, and an object that is in motion. The
formula from the graph is:
Ffk = µk(FN)
Kinetic Friction = coefficient of kinetic friction x Normal Force

Your slope (m value) in the graph is the coefficient µk. Write down the
value in the Data Sheet

Exercise B: Static Friction

(Data Gathering)

1. Click Forces, Sum of Forces, Values and Masses as shown in Figure 2

2. Solve for the Force of gravity (Weight) for each mass and fill- in Table B
in the Activity Data Sheet.
3. For each mass in Table B, slide the slider SLOWLY until the mass starts to move.
(first value should be between 130N and 140N). The pushing force at the moment
the mass starts to move balances out the maximum static force. Record this as the
Friction force in Table B.
NOTE: Since we are attempting to apply a force slowly until we notice motion, we
will
have error in this experiment. Your graph will have data points slightly off the linear fit
line.

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 (Data Processing & Analysis B)

1. To analyze the data, use the Vernier Graphical AnalysisTM.

2. Open the program and select Manual Entry
3. Title your X values FN with units N. This is the Normal Force which should
be a positive number and with same magnitude (size or number) as the
Force of Gravity.
4. Title your Y values Ffs with units N. This will be the Static Friction. (Ignore
direction for this graph, all values should be positive)
5. Title your graph Static Friction vs. Normal Force
6. Sketch the graph after adding your line of best fit
7. Record the m(slope) and b(y-int) value
8. Write your y=mx+b model in the Data Sheet

The slope here represents our coefficient of friction (µ) which you can think
of as a measure of the stickiness between two surfaces. It is a measure of the ratio
of friction and normal force. The subscript ‘s’ next to the µ indicates we are
talking about static friction and an object not in motion. We can specify it as
the formula below.
Ffs = µs(FN)
Static Friction = coefficient of static friction x Normal Force

Your slope (m value) in the graph is the coefficient µs. Write down the
value in the Data Sheet .

IV. Analysis & Discussion

1. Present the graph of the two exercises.

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 (Data Processing & Analysis B)

2. Review the coefficients in both exercises. Notice that the values are in
decimals. However, which frictional force (kinetic or static) has a coefficient with a
higher value? Table a kinetic friction is the higher value of coefficient.

3. The same objects were used in both exercises. Compare the static friction force to
the kinetic friction force in the data tables. Which frictional force was always larger?
The larger frictional force is static friction

4. What will be more difficult: to start moving an object that is still with static friction
or to keep a moving object (in the presence of kinetic friction) to continue
moving? Why? The most difficult is starting object moving static friction because
we need to compute first the static friction to move an object

References:
• Alda, H.(2020). “Forces and Motion” available from https://bit.ly/30q1lpp
• Bansiak, S.(2018). “Friction Quantitative Lab” available from https://bit.ly/3ceq9q2
• Young H. & Freedman,R. (2008). University Physics 12th Edition. Pearson Addison
Wesley
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