0
If you are thinking about driving your car down the road, you require friction between your tires and the road to do so. This is known as kinetic friction, and in classical physics, the equation is as follows:
f = mu*N
where mu is the coefficient of kinetic friction, N is the normal force (force acting perpendicular to the road by the road), and f is the force of friction acting parallel to the road at the point of contact with your tires.
Introduce a thin layer of ice to the road and the coefficient of kinetic friction between your tires and the road drops drastically (mu in the above equation). As a result, your car cannot efficiently convert the force from your engine to a friction force between your tires and the road leading to rotational movement. Depending on the structure of the snow, it will also variably drop the coefficient of kinetic friction.
This is why, if you are moving and hit a patch of ice, you may temporarily lose control because your car will be at the mercy of the surroundings and its momentum (or inertia) rather than the steering system (no friction means no response from the steering wheel). Alternatively, if the car is at rest, it will be difficult to start moving.
tl;dr
Ice or snow decrease the coefficient of static friction for a surface variably depending on structure. This will decrease the friction force between an object and the surface.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
Why is there no friction on concrete?
Because ice is very slippery and so you can slide while on concrete you wont be a be able to slide because its not slippery.
What is one situation that friction is useful?
Friction plays a vital role in our daily life. Without friction we are handicap.1. It is becomes difficult to walk on a slippery road due to low friction. When we move on ice, it becomes difficult to walk due to low friction of ice.2. We can not fix nail in the wood or wall if there is no friction. It is friction which holds the nail.3. A horse can not pull a cart unless friction furnishes him a secure foothold.
When a blade of ice skates melts the ice beneath it what does it reduce?
It reduces drag. *Drag meaning friction between the blade and the ice. That said, it takes an extreme amount of force to melt ice by means of applying pressure. Consider a glacier-- if ice melted under a small amount of pressure, a large glacier would start to melt under its own weight! We can then realize that figure skaters do not melt the ice under the blade my means of pressure. Basically, yes friction/drag WOULD be reduced if the ice beneath the blade melted, but the ice simply won't melt due to the weight of the skater alone.
What game requires little or no friction?
Curling. A kettle is slid across the ice. Team members brush the ice in front of the kettle to minimize friction.
When a car travels around a curve in the road helps to keep the car traveling in a curved path?
That force is simply the friction of the tires on the road. If the car was driving on a slippery ice surface, the friction might not be enough and the car would not make it around the sharp curve.
How could you increase friction on an icy road?
you could place salt on the icy areas to increase friction because the ice would began to melt.
How could you increase the friction on an iced covered sidewalk or icy road?
Pour sand over the ice.
What has more friction road with gravel or road with ice or plain road?
road
Does surface type affect the force of friction?
Surface types can affect the force of friction because as the surface gets rough and rougher it has more friction and smooth surface has less friction. if we compare the affect of friction force on a ice and road. Road is much more rough than the ice chunk and if we slide a ice hockey puck on each of the surfaces, we get that smoother surfaces has less friction.
When driving on a slippery surface such as snow or ice you should?
Put some sand on it to increase friction!
Why is sand put on ice?
its not Well, its not "generally" put on ice, but when it IS used its put down to suppposedly increase traction and reduce slipping on sidewalks and roads.
Why does it take a car longer to stop on ice?
This is due to friction. Friction acts between the car tires and the surface. On a normal road the friction would be greater than on ice.
Why would a car skid on a road?
The car skids less on a dry road due to greater friction between the tires and the alspahlt. Surfaces coated with water and ice have a lower coefficient of riction.
Why is friction not as useful in some winter sports?
Ice skating does not require any friction because the skater needs to glide on the ice and if there was any friction on ice the skater would have trouble to skate smoothly on the ice. That is why ice skating does not require any friction at all from my perspective.
Lets say your going Twenty mpr with good tire friction and no ice on the road. how long would it take if you are drunk. what if you are not drunk?
That would depend on how long it took you to perceive the problem and decide what to do about it.
Can friction can increase speed?
Sure. When I am running, I need to have good friction between my running shoes and the ground that I am running on, in order to be able to run quickly. A car needs a good level of friction between the tires and the road to drive at a high speed. Otherwise the wheels just spin but the car doesn't move (this can happen when you are stuck in the ice).
When a car is going down a hill covered in ice what friction would that be?
unless you have chains or studs it would be 0 friction
