Download Friction is a force that opposes motion.

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KEY CONCEPT
Friction is a force that
opposes motion.
BEFORE, you learned
NOW, you will learn
• Gravity is the attractive force
masses exert on each other
• Gravity increases with greater
mass and decreases with
greater distance
• Gravity is the centripetal force
keeping objects in orbit
• How friction affects motion
• About factors that affect
friction
• About air resistance
VOCABULARY
THINK ABOUT
friction p. 389
fluid p. 392
air resistance p. 393
What forces help
you to walk?
As a person walks, she exerts a
backward force on the ground.
A reaction force moves her forward.
But some surfaces are harder to walk
on than others. Ice, for example, is
harder to walk on than a dry surface
because ice is slippery. How can different surfaces affect your ability to walk?
Friction occurs when
surfaces slide against each other.
SUPPORTING MAIN IDEAS
Take notes about friction,
including details and
examples.
Have you ever pushed a heavy box across the floor? You probably
noticed that it is easier to push the box over some surfaces than
over others. You must apply a certain amount of force to the box
to keep it moving. The force that acts against your pushing force is
called friction. Friction is a force that resists the motion between two
surfaces in contact.
When you try to slide two surfaces across each other, the force of
friction resists the sliding motion. If there were no friction, the box
would move as soon as you applied any force to it. Although friction
can make some tasks more difficult, most activities, including walking,
would be impossible without it. Friction between your feet and the
ground is what provides the action and reaction forces that enable
you to walk.
Chapter 12: Gravity, Friction, and Pressure 389
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Forces and Surfaces
RESOURCE CENTER
If you look down from a great height, such as from the window of an
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airplane, a flat field appears to be smooth. If you were to walk in the
Learn more about
field, however, you would see that the ground has many bumps and
friction, forces, and
holes. In the same way, a flat surface such as a piece of plastic may
surfaces.
look and feel smooth. However, if you look at the plastic through a
strong microscope, you see that it has tiny bumps and ridges. Friction
depends on how these bumps and ridges on one surface interact with
and stick to the bumps and ridges on other surfaces. There are several
factors that determine the friction between two surfaces.
Friction between two surfaces depends on the
materials that make up the surfaces. Different combinations of
surfaces produce different frictional forces. A rubber hockey puck
sliding across ice has a smaller frictional force on it than the same
puck sliding across a wooden floor. The friction between rubber and
ice is less than the friction between rubber and wood.
Types of Surfaces
reminder
Remember that balanced
forces on an object do not
change the object’s motion.
You need a larger force to start something
moving than you do to keep something moving. If you have ever
tried to push a heavy chair, you may have noticed that you had to
push harder and harder until the chair suddenly accelerated forward.
Motion of the Surfaces
As you apply a force to push a chair or any other object that is not
moving, the frictional force keeping it from sliding increases so the
forces stay balanced. However, the frictional force has a limit to how
Friction and Motion
Before Object Moves
While Object Moves
acceleration
applied
force
applied
force
friction
When an object is standing still, there is a maximum
force needed to overcome friction and start it moving.
Any force less than this will be exactly balanced by the
force of friction, and the object will not move.
390 Unit 3: Motion and Forces
friction
Once the object is moving, the frictional force remains
constant. This constant force is less than the maximum
force needed to start the object moving.
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large it can be. When your force is greater than this limit, the forces on
the chair are no longer balanced, and the chair moves. The frictional
force remains at a new lower level once the chair is moving.
The harder two surfaces are
pushed together, the more difficult it is for the surfaces to slide over
each other. When an object is placed on a surface, the weight of the
object presses on that surface. The surface exerts an equal and opposite reaction force on the object. This reaction force is one of the
factors that determines how much friction there is.
Force Pressing the Surfaces Together
If you push a chair across the floor, there will be a certain amount
of friction between the chair and the floor. Increasing the weight of
the chair increases the force pushing the surfaces together. The force
of friction between the chair and the floor is greater when a person is
sitting in it than when the chair was empty.
Friction depends on the total force pressing the surfaces together,
not on how much area this force acts over. Consider a rectangular
cardboard box. It can rest with its smaller or larger side on the floor.
The box will have the same force from friction regardless of which
side sits on the floor. The larger side has more area in contact with
the floor than the smaller side, but the weight of the box is more
spread out on the larger side.
check your reading
What factors influence frictional force? Give two examples.
Friction and Weight
Less Weight
More Weight
weight
weight
applied
force
applied
force
friction
The force of friction depends on the total force pushing the surfaces together. Here the weight of the
chair is the force pressing the surfaces together.
friction
The weight of the chair increases when someone sits
in it. The force of friction is now greater than when
the chair was empty.
Chapter 12: Gravity, Friction, and Pressure 391
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Friction and Heat
Friction between surfaces produces heat. You feel heat produced by
friction when you rub your hands together. As you rub, friction causes
the individual molecules on the surface of your hands to move faster.
As the individual molecules in an object move faster, the temperature
of the object increases. The increased speed of the molecules on the
surface of your hands produces the warmth that you feel.
The heat produced by friction can be intense. The friction that
results from striking a match against a rough surface produces enough
heat to ignite the flammable substance on the head of the match. In
some machines, such as a car engine, too much heat from friction can
cause serious damage. Substances such as oil are often used to reduce
friction between moving parts in machines. Without motor oil, a car’s
engine parts would overheat and stop working.
Friction produces sparks
between a match head and
a rough surface. The heat
from friction eventually
lights the match.
Motion through fluids produces friction.
As you have seen, two objects falling in a vacuum fall with the same
acceleration. Objects falling through air, however, have different accelerations. This difference occurs because air is a fluid. A fluid is a
substance that can flow easily. Gases and liquids are fluids.
Friction in Air
How does the shape of an object
affect how it falls?
Write a hypothesis that explains how shape affects the speed
of falling objects. Design an experiment that tests your hypothesis.
PROCEDURE
1 Figure out how you can use the three sheets of paper to test your hypothesis.
Remember to control all other variables, including the mass of the paper.
2 Write up your procedure.
3 Conduct your experiment.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
• What were the results of your experiment?
• Did the results support your hypothesis? Explain your answer.
• Write a statement that summarizes your findings.
CHALLENGE What other variable might affect falling time? How could
you test it?
392 Unit 3: Motion and Forces
SKILL FOCUS
Designing
experiments
MATERIALS
3 identical sheets
of paper
TIME
30 minutes
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When an object moves through a fluid, it pushes the
molecules of the fluid out of the way. At the same time, the
molecules of the fluid exert an equal and opposite force on the
object that slows it down. This force resisting motion through a
fluid is a type of friction that is often called drag. Friction in
fluids depends on the shape of the moving object. Objects can
be designed either to increase or reduce the friction caused by a
fluid. Airplane designs, for example, improve as engineers find
ways to reduce drag.
The friction due to air is often called air resistance.
Air resistance differs from the friction between solid surfaces.
Air resistance depends on surface area and the speed of an
object in the following ways:
•
•
air resistance
An object with a larger surface area comes into contact with
more molecules as it moves than an object with a smaller surface
area. This increases the air resistance.
The faster an object moves through air, the more molecules it
comes into contact with in a given amount of time. As the speed
of the object increases, air resistance increases.
gravity
When the force of air
resistance equals the
force from gravity, a
skydiver falls at a
constant speed.
When a skydiver jumps out of a plane, gravity causes the skydiver
to accelerate toward the ground. As the skydiver falls, his body pushes
against the air. The air pushes back—with the force of air resistance.
As the skydiver’s speed increases, his air resistance increases. Eventually,
air resistance balances gravity, and the skydiver reaches terminal velocity, which is the final, maximum velocity of a falling object. When the
skydiver opens his parachute, air resistance increases still further, and
he reaches a new, slower terminal velocity that enables him to land safely.
check your reading
How do speed and surface area affect air resistance?
KEY CONCEPTS
CRITICAL THINKING
1. How does friction affect
forward motion? Give an
example.
4. Infer What two sources of
friction do you have to overcome when you are walking?
2. Describe two ways to change
the frictional force between
two solid surfaces.
5. Synthesize If you push a
chair across the floor at a
constant velocity, how does
the force of friction compare
with the force you exert?
Explain.
3. How does air resistance affect
the velocity of a falling object?
CHALLENGE
6. Synthesize If you push a
book against a wall hard
enough, it will not slide down
even though gravity is pulling
it. Use what you know about
friction and Newton’s laws of
motion to explain why the
book does not fall.
Chapter 12: Gravity, Friction, and Pressure 393