AP Physics 1 : Force of Friction

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Physics 1

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Example Questions

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Example Question #131 : Forces

A box is shoved and is sliding on a concrete floor. It has a mass of  and in  slows from  to . Determine the coefficient of friction.

Possible Answers:

None of these

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Work is due to friction:

Solving for 

Plugging in values:

Example Question #740 : Ap Physics 1

A  block is held at rest at the top of slope inclined at . When the block is let go it slides down the slope, experiencing friction along the way. If the acceleration of the block down the ramp is , what is the coefficient of kinetic friction between the block and ramp?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Img 20160212 183040582Because the block is traveling on an inclined ramp and experiences friction, the two main forces at work here are a component of gravitational force and kinetic frictional force.

Img 20160212 183048473 The total force acting on the block can be written as , where  is the component of gravitational force in the direction of motion, and  is the kinetic frictional force.

We know that forces can be expressed as , and kinetic friction can be expressed as . Hence our total force can be expressed as . The normal force can be further expressed as 

The component of gravity parallel to the ramp is given by , while the component of gravity perpendicular to the ramp is given by .

Our total force can hence be expressed as .

Thus, 

and 

Example Question #31 : Force Of Friction

Jennifer has a mass of  and is riding a rocket powered sled of mass . The rocket produces a thrust of  and she accelerates at a rate of . Determine the coefficient of friction between the sled and the snow underneath.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Solving for the coefficient of friction:

Example Question #32 : Force Of Friction

Consider the following scenario:

Sledder

A sledder of mass  is at the stop of a sledding hill at height  with a slope of angle .

The hill has a height of  and a slope . If a 75-kilogram sledder is initially at rest at the top of the hill and reaches the bottom of the hill with a final velocity , what is the average frictional force applied to the sledder? Neglect air resistance and any other frictional forces.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We can use the expression for conservation of energy to solve this problem:

The problem statement tells us that the sledder is initially at rest, so we can eliminate initial kinetic energy. Also, if we assume that the bottom of the hill has a height of 0, we can eliminate final potential energy to get:

  (1)

From here we need to determine what is going to contribute to work. The only extra piece of information we have in this problem is that there is an average frictional force. Therefore that will be the only source of work. Let's began expanding each term, going from left to right:

  (2)

Note that we didn't mark the height as an initial height because we assumed that the bottom of the hill has a height of 0.

Where d is the length of the hill. We can calculate this distance using the height and angle of the hill.

Rearranging for distance:

Substituting this back into our expression for work, we get:

  (3)

Now our final term:

    (4)

Now substituting expression 2, 3, and 4 into expression 1, we get:

The reason we are subtracting friction is because it is removing energy from the system. Another way we could have written our initial expression would be to have work on the final state and then friction would be positive.

Rearranging for the frictional force:

We have all of these values, so time to plug and chug:

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