Is the table-cloth trick driven more by inertia or friction?

[Bashyboy]

Hi,

Is the success of the table-cloth trick ascribed to inertia, or the fact that the person pulling on the table-cloth is able to pull with a greater force than the static friction trying to oppose relative motion of the objects on the table-cloth and the table cloth itself?

 

[aroc91]

Have you considered that it could be both?

 

[willem2]

Inertia is certainly necessary, but the real trick is to pull so hard that the tablecloth will be removed in a very short time that the dynamic friction doesn't have time to accelerate the objects much. The amount of momentum the objects get is (friction force) * (time), so by making the time as short as possible, the momentum, and thus the speed of the objects will be made as small as possible.