1.1 What is friction? Take this everyday example: when a coffee mug rests on a flat table, the kinetic frictional force is zero. There is no force trying to move the mug across the table, so there is ...

A couple of commenters expressed concern over the use of centrifugal force after my rant on the use of the word force. So, what is the deal with these two terms? Are they ok to use? Are they real ...

A further development in atomic force microscopy now makes it possible to simultaneously image the height profile of nanometer-fine structures as well as the electric current and the frictional force ...

Quick, out behind the bike shed, Professors Pendry and Leonhardt are having a fight over a completely hypothetical situation. If we hurry, we should catch the end of round three. Science: it is ...

In the Olympic event of Short Track Speed Skating, athletes race around a rather short track (thus the name of the event) that only has a circumference of 111 meters. It always seems almost magical ...

Friction is defined as the resistance to relative motion between two bodies of contact. The force of friction is independent of the area of surfaces in contact and is directly proportional to the ...

Perhaps few physical concepts have received less attention relative to their importance than friction. Learning the 'effective' notions of static and sliding friction, students of mechanics can easily ...

The frictional forces in a tidal current have been determined from simultaneous observations of the surface gradients and the currents at various depths. The observations were made a few miles from ...