June 23, 2024
Ch 9: Friction
Definitions keywords and concepts:
Friction is a contact force in which the direction of the force opposes
the motion.
It is often seen when we need to reduce the speed of moving objects.
9.1 Force of friction:
The force which helps to reduce the speed of a moving object is called
friction.
This is easily understood as a contact force as it is necessary to be in
contact with the moving object in order to reduce its speed.
Friction opposes motion.
An object lying on the table does not move because it is held in its place
by the force of friction.
The object will move only after some time and it is easy to understand
that it requires some force to make it move.
9.2 Factors affecting friction:
There are several factors which affect frictional force.
They can be listed as:
1. Roughness or smoothness of the surface:
When the surface in contact with the moving object is smooth, the
ability to oppose the motion becomes minimum.
It is observed that the surface of ant object is very irregular and has
several ridges.
When an object rubs against these ridges, they oppose the motion
and help to reduce the speed of the moving object.
When a surface is rough, the ridges are numerous and offer greater
resistance to the motion.
When the ridges are less the opposing forces are minimum and the
opposing force is also minimized.
2. Friction increases when the weight of the body increases.
It is observed that a heavy object offers great frictional force compared
to a lighter one.
It is obvious that this happens because the two objects a pressed closer
because to the greater weight on one of them.
[Link] does not depend on the area of contact .
This is however very misleading as we generally imagine that a larger
are of contact would leads to a loarger frictional force.
9.3: Friction: a necessary evil:
Frictional force always leads to
[Link] and tear
2. loss of energy in the form of heat.
It is for this reason that it is considered to be evil and because it cannot
be avoided, it becomes necessary.
It is found that in certain situations, we increase the friction and in
certain situations, we reduce it.
Examples where we increase friction:
Lighting a match stick and applying brakes
Examples where we reduce friction:
Polishing the ice skating rink and powdering the carom board
9.4 Increase or decrease friction:
There are several ways which we use to increase or decrease friction.
They are listed as (to increase friction):
1. Make the surface rough
The surface is made rough by adding ridges and spikes to it.
This increases the friction and reduces the speed of the objects.
2. Increasing the weight of the object
Since the friction increases when the weight increases, it becomes
easy to change the force of friction by changing the weight
accordingly.
Decrease friction:
1. Polishing the surface
This reduces the irregularities of the surface, making the friction
less.
2. Using lubrication:
By introducing a lubricant which smoothens out the ridges on the
surface, the frictional force can considerably be reduced.
3. Polishing the surface:
Polishing the surface also makes the ridges less apparent, thereby
reducing friction.
9.5 Wheels reduce friction:
Depending on the type of motion namely rolling or sliding, we can
reduce friction.
Static friction:
This is type of friction that exists between object in contact and at rest.
This has a great magnitude.
Sliding friction
This is the type of friction which exists between objects which are
sliding over one another and are in contact with each other.
This type of friction has a large magnitude but it is lesser than static
friction.
Rolling friction:
This type of friction exists between objects which are in contact with
each other but roll over each other.
It is found that rolling friction has the least magnitude and is therefore
used to reduce friction.
This is done by adding wheels to objects which are in constant motion.
9.6 Fluid friction:
The friction is a contact force which means that it also includes the
liquid and gaseous states of [Link] moving molecules collide
with each other, they cause frictional force, which reduces the speed
of the object in contact with the fluids.
Frictional force exerted by fluids is called drag.
When large vehicles move through water or air, they experience drag.
This reduces their speed as the friction increases.
In order to reduce drag, we make the vehicle streamlined and include
aerodynamic cuts to their structure.
Even in nature birds and fishes are streamlined.