Types of Friction

Last updated on November 22nd, 2023 at 04:14 am

Friction may be of different types depending on when and how it evolves and varies. Let’s find out the fundamentals of static friction and dynamic friction.

Static Friction

Static friction: Static friction, is the force that tends to prevent a stationary object to start moving.

The maximum static friction is called the limiting friction or starting friction. It is the amount of force that must be overcome to start a stationary object moving.
Example: attempting to move a heavy cabinet across a floor.

Kinetic Friction

Kinetic Friction: Once the force applied to an object crosses the limiting friction, the object starts moving. Then, moving or kinetic friction replaces static friction.

Kinetic friction is the force that acts against an object’s motion in a direction opposite to the direction of motion.

If the applied force has the same magnitude as the kinetic friction while moving an object horizontally, then the net force on the object will be zero and the moving object will maintain uniform velocity.

Kinetic friction may be of different types depending on the situation like Sliding friction, rolling friction, and fluid friction.