OK, last night I was laying in bed, just pondering wave particle duality. I was at that point of semi-consciousness when u are almost asleep, but you are aware of sounds around you, and they sound really loud.....you know what I'm tlaking about. My leg jolted, as sometimes happens at this point of sleep, and I felt a slight burn from the sheets. Like a carpet burn. And I said something that surprised me, and my family, who were awoken by my angry scream! I shouted "DARN YOU FRICTION....DARN YOU!" And so I started thinking about friction. I thought of advantages and disadvantages, and the affect it has on our lives. Is it our best friend or our worst enemy? Is it one of the most helpfuland necessary aspects of the nature of the physical world, or is it the unseen spectre of the night, hunting and stalking our every move. Without friction we would not get carpet burns. But we'd also have difficulty moving. Discuss!
geez El Pid that looks like your first post!!!, and boy is it a screamer!!! im not quite up for tackling an 'issue' of such length and girth but let me say that is a fine specimen of a philsophical GEM!!, the ultimate conundrum, we couldnt live without it, but do we really enjoy living with it... tis a harsh world and at times it may even be harsh, but no matter how harsh it gets, or if it becomes really harsh i believe we can rely on friction, dont they say a best friend is a foe you need, or was it anyone that can chafe u in bed and still not get kicked out is a true friend.... friction is a friend QED
First of all, welcome! Okay, maybe this sounds 'harsh' or 'too philosophical', but friction, as many other things, has two opposissive characteristics: good or bad. Okay, for your case, it is the most common bad side of friction: heat. I haven't devised a complete explanation on this, but basically, when two rough surfaces come on constant contact, with one of them moving on a different direction relatively to the other (in another word: those two moves to different ways), each will 'try' to stop the other from moving, most possibly because the rough surfaces 'try' to lock into each other. (your two hands can be used as an example. Fold your two hands so each makes a C letter. Use your fingers on one hand to hit the palm of your other hand. Then separate them by moving your hands without losing contact to your palms) Since they make surface contact, the particles on the surface bump one another often enough to collect energy to produce heat. By surface contact I don't mean that only solid objects experience this... otherwise, our earth would have been bombarded by meteors which were no stopped by our atmosphere. Friction has a good use too. Commonly, friction is (so far applicable) the only force that helps you to stand up. To understand it, imagine you are standing on a 'completely' icy floor (with very smooth surface). Everytime you try to step forward, when your foot hit the floor, the rough surface of your feet slips on the smooth surface of the ice since it can't 'lock' into the ice surface-> no force to keep you upright, and you fall. Sorry if my explanation seems blurry (or terrible).... I'm afraid I can't make a good teacher....
Of course it's all just opinion when you ask "friend or foe" so here's mine: Friction is your pal. Nothing that you currently concieve as physical interactions would function similarly if it werent' for friction. It's what let's us get around, puts the joy in reproduction (the pain is more "pressure" than friction, but friction is involved). Man if everything were frictionless how would you stop? How would you ever get going? No birds, no planes, no manufacturing, none of a lot of things is what you would get without friction. Of course it's nice to selectively cancel it with your psychic powers, but since that's just fantasy... I say friction good (though everything has the "not-so-good" component. Viva la frickshone!
I'd say someting but I cannot stop laughing!!! What a post! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! PS. Do you always ponder quantum mechanics in semi-consciousness? I prefer to muse over the intracacies of particle interactions.
This is quite an interesting topic. I think that friction is very important. I can't help but think of an episode of the Magic School Bus I saw as a child, I seriously urge you guys to check it out if you get the chance. They basically experienced life without friction, and found it out to be quite a horrible thing. If you think about it, we rely on friction for all of our movement. We need friction between our feet and the floor to keep us in place, and we need friction to stop us from moving. Without friction, if we take a step, we could keep on sliding forever, there would be nothing to slow us down. Not to mention driving and riding a bike would be an entirely thrilling experience, as you would never be able to stop! Just imagine, I think it would be quite freaky. It might not even be possible for our muscles and things to movie. I think friction is quite important, and that the positives out weight the negatives. People don't generally die from friction (in every day life), however lack of friction would turn many of our everyday experiences into life threatening ones!!
Exactly. That's a good explanation, Ice. Also, I want to correct my earlier statement saying that heat is the undesirable effect of friction. This is not 100% true: When you feel cold, won't you rub you hands against each other to make it warm?
