Friction and Contact Area
It is an empirical fact for many materials that F = μN, where F is the frictional force for sliding friction, μ is the coefficient of friction, and N is the normal force. There isn't a simple derivation for sliding friction's independence from area.
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Famous quotes containing the words friction and, friction, contact and/or area:
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—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
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—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Dorothy Corkville Briggs (20th century)