ANALYSIS

Various lessons are being discussed in the Physics subject. In the previous
experiment, it talked about the Newton’s second law of motion. While for this
experiment, Experiment No. 102: Friction, the focus will be on what will be the
effect of friction to the object once this force is applied upon it. But first, friction is
the force that counters the movement between the object and the surface it is moving
on. There are different types of friction, namely: static, sliding, rolling, and fluid
friction. The similarity among static, sliding and rolling frictions is that all of them
occur in a solid surface. Having different strengths and magnitudes, static being the
strongest, next to it is the sliding and the weakest among the three is the rolling
friction. On the other hand, fluid friction happens in fluids, pertaining to gases and
liquids.
Friction serve as an important factor in the lives of people. In the ancient
times, people used friction to produce fire by rubbing two rocks together and
yielding heat from it. An individual also cannot write without the use of friction,
since there is a frictional force that is being exerted between a pen and paper. In the
engineering industry, friction also plays a major role. In terms of transportation
engineering, a vehicle will not move without the use of friction, and on the other
hand, it will not stop also without the help of this force. Friction is being used in
stopping or braking an automobile by producing heat from the brakes.
In this experiment, the objectives were set to determine the coefficient of
friction between the different surfaces in contact while moving in uniform motion
and to establish the relationship between the angle of repose and the coefficient of
friction.
From the tables presented the data that were gathered after conducting the
experiment. On one hand, the Table 1. A. Determining the coefficient of Friction
(on large side of the block), it consists of three columns, i.e. total weight of the
block (Wb), total weight of the pan (Wp) and the coefficient of friction (μ). The two
total weights were gathered by measuring the mass of the block and its load in grams.
To get the coefficient of friction, get the quotient of the total weight of pan by
dividing it by the total weight of the block. After the summation of the coefficients
of every weight, the yielded average was 0.3849.
On the other hand, the Table 1. B. Determining the coefficient of Friction
(on narrow side of the block), similar to the previous one, it also consists of three
columns with the same labels. However, the results were different. In this
experiment, the average that was gotten is 0.3542, having a difference of 0.0307
from the prior experiment.
Basing on these data, having a small adjustment on the weight of the block
and the pan, the coefficient of friction is most likely to increase minimally. Thus,
resulting to a constant coefficient of friction.
The results of the second part of this experiment was tabulated in Table 2.
Determination of the Angle of Repose, consisting of four columns specifically:
vertical height, horizontal resistance, tan ϴ and ϴ, respectively. The measured
vertical height (h) was 37 cm and the horizontal distance (b) was 114 cm with an
angle (ϴ) of 18 °. The computed tangent ϴ was 0.3246 after gathering all the data
needed.
In this section of the experiment, there was no chance of comparing the
differences between/among different angles, heights and distances. However, if the
group will be assuming certain values for those three variables, the higher the values
will be, they may result to the constancy of the friction of the model.
CONCLUSION
Friction is one of the most used forces every day. A vehicle would not move
if there is the absence of frictional force, and a student could not write if there will
be no friction. This force has a lot of things to do in the human life. It all began in
the ancient times and can be still used until today. For the Experiment No. 102:
Friction, students were tasked to determine the coefficient of friction between the
different surfaces in contact while moving in uniform motion and to establish the
relationship between the angle of repose and the coefficient of friction.
In conclusion of the first part of the experiment, the coefficient friction,
denoted by μ, was determined by conducting the proper way of investigating the
force that resists the movement of an object on a surface. In this experiment, the
value of μ was set to be as: 0 < μ <1, wherein the value of μ is between zero and
positive one. The values of μ were interpreted as adding small adjustment on the
mass of the block and pan will change a small value on the coefficient of friction,
and most likely, produce a constant value of μ.
On the second part of the experiment, as a summary, the value of the vertical
height, horizontal distance and the angle were gathered by measuring them. Since
there was only one value for each of them, there was no comparison with other
results. In effect, the group only assumed some values for these variables, resulting
to the minimal changes of the coefficient of friction just like the prior part of the
experiment.
To sum it all up, the coefficient of friction on the block stayed constant when
the block travelled in the horizontal surface with unchanging movement. For the
block to move, the force acting upon it must be increased while decreasing the mass
of the block. In other words, since acceleration is directly proportional to net force
and inversely proportional to the mass, increasing the net force and decreasing the
weight will result to the movement of the block. However, the friction is on the other
side of the net force, therefore, increasing the net force while adding weights to the
block will also result the block to be driven. In terms of the angle of repose, the
acceleration of an object in an unbalanced surface will be nothing, since it moves or
slide in a uniform motion. Also, in conclusion of the two experiments, the tangent
of the angle will have a small difference with the coefficient of friction of the block.