Irregularities present on a surface are often described as surface roughness or texture. These surface textures such as grooves and dimples impart friction, which is the force between two sliding ...

Friction usually announces itself through contact. A chair scraping across a floor, a tire gripping asphalt, a hand sliding ...

Researchers have demonstrated how to entirely suppress static friction between two surfaces. This means that even a minuscule force suffices to set objects in motion. Especially in micromechanical ...

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 ...

Mountaire Farms’ agricultural food production and processing facilities near Lumber Bridge, N.C., has its share of heavy, 18-wheeler traffic. The number of vehicles entering and exiting the facilities ...

Unless you are in the fields of robotics or prosthetics, you likely take for granted the fine motor skills our hands have. Picking up and using a pen is no small feat for a robot which doesn’t have a ...

You know that two surfaces mate, but what is a friction clutch or brake? Using friction has been the most popular way to engage and stop loads since the 1800s. Surfaces interact with ...

It may seem like fun and games, but understanding how dominoes topple isn’t child’s play. “It’s a problem that is so natural; everybody plays with dominoes,” says David Cantor, a researcher at ...