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 ...

One of the greatest challenges of physicists, particularly condensed-matter physicists, has always been the difficulty of describing nature's complex systems with simple, mathematically solvable ...

Researchers have demonstrated how to entirely suppress static friction between two surfaces. This means that even a minuscule force suffices to set objects in motion. Especially in micromechanical ...

Nanomachines will depend on our knowledge of friction, heat transfer and energy dissipation at the atomic level for their very survival. In the scramble to revolutionize the world with nanotechnology ...

A new model of the slipperiness of ice suggests that a layer of disordered ice forms underneath a sliding object. The model was developed by Bo Persson of Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany, and it ...

Everybody knows that sliding on ice or snow, is much easier than sliding on most other surfaces. But why is the ice surface slippery? Researchers have now shown that the slipperiness of ice is a ...

Friction is an intrinsic physical phenomenon to curling. Without it, objects in motion would move endlessly, without slowing down. This would cause many safety-related problems: Cars or trains could ...

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Friction is a force that exists when two surfaces rub up against each other. For example, this cup on ...