Peeling Direction and Adhesive Force: Explained

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Peeling tape requires different forces depending on the direction of pull due to the adhesive filament's behavior. When pulling at an angle, the adhesive force is concentrated differently, making it harder to peel in certain directions. The left pulling direction engages more adhesive surface area, resulting in greater resistance as the tape is pulled off. In contrast, pulling from the edge allows for a more effective removal since only a small amount of adhesive is engaged at a time. Ultimately, the angle of pull significantly influences the ease of tape removal.
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peeling direction...?

when I tried to peel a tape off the surface, I realized that it requires much larger force to pull in the direction shown in the left picture. Why is that?

if we think about it, the adhesive force is caused by the adhesive filament that stretches and breaks as we apply force. But if the angle of pulling is the same, it seems there should be no particular reason why the left case would be harder to peel the tape off.

And also, why does the elastic deformation become more evident in the left case?
 

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Interesting, something I've never really thought about.

If I had to put an initial guess without really thinking too deeply about it, I'd say it's to do with the concentration of force.

On the right, the force is applied directly to the edge only. Equal force on each tape, but the pressure resulting from the angle of pull is greater in the right hand diagram.
 


What about if we were to consider the extreme case of zero degrees pulling angle - with left hand diagram we would be attempting to pull all the tape off the table in one go whereas with right hand we would still be doing it sequentially. So it's the vertical force component which is constant in both cases but as I think this extreme case shows us, it is also he horizontal component that helps remove the tape, which is only effective when we pull it in the correct direction

Just my 2c :-)
 


On the right hand pic, one is only pulling away from the surface a very small amount of total adhesive at a time, and the remaining tape does not resist this.
On the left hand pic, the remaining tape does resist. This resistance can be substantial.
 
So I know that electrons are fundamental, there's no 'material' that makes them up, it's like talking about a colour itself rather than a car or a flower. Now protons and neutrons and quarks and whatever other stuff is there fundamentally, I want someone to kind of teach me these, I have a lot of questions that books might not give the answer in the way I understand. Thanks
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