In physics, resistance force is the force which an effort force must overcome in order to do work on an object via a simple machine. Resistance force, like most other forces, is measured in newtons or in pounds-force.
For an ideal (frictionless) mechanism in which no energy is lost, resistance force obeys the relation:
where:
- R equals resistance force
- DR equals resistance distance
- E equals effort force
- DE equals effort distance
Resistance force is used to calculate the work output using the following equation:
Famous quotes containing the words resistance and/or force:
“The greatest, or rather the most prominent, part of this city was constructed with the design to offer the deadest resistance to leaden and iron missiles that might be cast against it. But it is a remarkable meteorological and psychological fact, that it is rarely known to rain lead with much violence, except on places so constructed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It’s the old captain’s dark fate
Who failed to find or force a strait
In its two-thousand-mile coast;
And his crew left him where he failed,
And nothing came of all he sailed.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)