Sometimes you think you have a complete understanding of something and then BOOM—a simple problem throws everything out the window. Let's consider a very basic physics problem involving pushing a ...

Irregularities present on a surface are often described as surface roughness or texture. These surface textures such as grooves and dimples impart friction, which is the force between two sliding ...

IT is well known that under vacua of less than 1 torr the coefficient of friction of graphite on itself and other materials increases from its usual value of about 0.15 to a value of 0.5, or even ...

All street-legal brake pads sold in the U.S. feature DOT-mandated friction codes and other data marked right on the parts. That's important info because the higher a brake pad's coefficient of ...

There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science ...

Because of friction, sleds don't technically touch the snow and instead ride on a small layer of water created by the heat of the sled sliding down the hill. Sledding is one of many ways Wisconsinites ...