Friction is a key phenomenon in applied physics, whose origin has been studied for centuries. Until now, it has been understood that mechanical wear-resistance and fluid lubrication affect friction, ...

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 ...

I'll be honest—friction is pretty complicated. Imagine that I have a block of wood sliding on a table. In some way, the atoms on the surface of the wood block are interacting with the surface atoms on ...

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 ...

Scientists led by the University of Leicester have made an insight into superlubricity, where surfaces experience extremely low levels of friction While many of us are treading carefully to avoid a ...

For a number of years videos have been circulating the internet showing an intriguing experiment, which has now received a satisfactory physical explanation. In the video, a plastic bottle with a bit ...

I always enjoy MythBusters. Great material for blogs. Also, one of the things I like is that Adam and Jamie are not professional scientists. This means that if they make some mistakes, that is just ...