- #1
jamesnb
- 37
- 0
This is my first year teaching High School Physics and I'm finding there are a lot of questions I should have asked 25 years ago when I was in college.
1. Does anybody know what the coefficient of friction is based on? Usually these things are based on something like getting units to cancel or amount of something to do something or an absolute. The only thing I've been able to find is mu of rubber on concrete = 1.0
2. Why is it called "normal" Force. Of course I understand what it is and how to calculate it but I'm at a lose to explain how they came up with "normal" as opposed to something more reasonable like perpendicular, complimentary or even opposite.
Any ideas?
1. Does anybody know what the coefficient of friction is based on? Usually these things are based on something like getting units to cancel or amount of something to do something or an absolute. The only thing I've been able to find is mu of rubber on concrete = 1.0
2. Why is it called "normal" Force. Of course I understand what it is and how to calculate it but I'm at a lose to explain how they came up with "normal" as opposed to something more reasonable like perpendicular, complimentary or even opposite.
Any ideas?