Friction

Lecture (11)

Dr. Banazier Ahmed

 What is Friction?
• Friction is a force .
• A frictional force can exist when two substances contact
each other.
• The molecules of each surface interact according to
Newton’s Laws of Motion.
• Friction always opposes motion, i.e., it is opposite to the
direction of velocity.
• If there is no motion, then friction opposes the sum of all
the other forces which are parallel to the surfaces in
contact.
Moving

Friction
 What is Friction?
• The amount of friction depends on the materials from which
the two surfaces are made. The rougher the surface, the
more friction is produced. For example, you would have to
push a book harder to get it moving on a carpet than you
would on a wooden floor. This is because there is more
friction between the carpet and the book than there is
between the wood and the book.

• Friction also produces heat. For example, if you rub your

hands together quickly, they get warmer
Types of Friction
Types of Friction
 Friction in Sport and Human
Movement
• Static friction is larger than dynamic friction .

• More difficult to start an object moving than to keep it

moving .
• Locomotion requires frictional forces .
• Materials used for the soles of athletic shoes have large
coefficients of friction
– Wax skis to decrease coefficient of friction
– Tape, chalk, and sprays improve grip which increases
coefficient of friction between hands and implement
 Contact Force
• Force that occurs between objects that are in
contact with each other.
• Contact forces can be resolved into components
that are perpendicular and parallel to the surfaces
in contact.
• The perpendicular component is called the normal
force.
• The parallel component is called friction.
 Friction and the Normal Force
• The maximum frictional force is proportional to the
normal contact force.
• An increase in the normal force results in an
increase in the maximum friction.
• This is because the molecules on the two
surfaces are pushed together more, thus
increasing their interactions.
 Weight means  Normal Force,
and therefore,  Maximum Friction
 Friction and Surface Area
• Friction is not affected by the size of the surface area in
contact.
• If the normal force remains constant, but the contacting
surface area is increased, then the normal force is spread
out over more molecules, thus the force on each molecule
is reduced.

• The formula for friction is

F = μ mg
Thus frictional force depends on mass and μ
μ for any two objects is fixed. If it dependent on the area of
two objects , we will have different values of μ for the given
two surfaces and will not be a constant.
• This shows that friction does not depend on the area of the
surfaces.
 Calculating Friction
• Ff_max = FN
• Ff_max is the maximum force of friction
•  (Mu) is the coefficient of friction
• FN is the normal force
• Friction can range in value from -Ff_max to +Ff_max
•  depends on the types of surfaces that are
interacting. It would be low for rubber on ice, but
high for rubber on asphalt. It also depends on
whether the surfaces are moving relative to each
other or not ( static or dynamic )
The Laws of Dry Friction. Coefficients of Friction
The Laws of Dry Friction. Coefficients of Friction
Example
 Example
If you have a box that has a mass of 50 kg, what is it's normal force?

M = 50 kg
g = 9.8 m/s/s
FN = ?
Use the formula FN = mg,

So it would look like FN = (50 kg)(9.8 m/s/s). Therefore FN = 490 N

Now if it takes 156.8 N of force to get the box moving, then what is it's
static coefficient of friction?

We take the formula F = FN

With 156.8 N =  (490 N) we can to this with simple math.
156.8/490 =  = .32, which is the static coefficient of friction,
 Example
You push a 100 kg rock down the road. If the kinetic coefficient of the rock
and the pavement is .25, what is the force required to keep the rock
moving?

m = 100 kg
g = 9.8 m/s/s
 k = .25
Obviously we need to find the FN for:
FN = mg
Since we know m and g, FN = (100 kg)(9.8 m/s/s) = 980 N. Now that we have
FN we can use
F =  k (FN) 
Which when plugged in with what we know is
F = (.25)(980 N)
So F = 245 N that need to be continually pressed to keep it moving.