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Friction Lab Question: What Factors Affect The Force of Friction?

1) The friction lab experiment tested how the force of friction is affected by increasing the mass placed on a surface. The independent variable was the number of blocks added, and the dependent variable was the measured frictional force. 2) Results showed that as the total mass increased by adding more blocks, the measured frictional force also increased. The slope of the line of best fit provided the coefficient of static and kinetic friction. 3) The coefficient of static friction was found to be greater than the coefficient of kinetic friction, indicating static friction is always greater than kinetic friction for the same surfaces, as expected.

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88 views3 pages

Friction Lab Question: What Factors Affect The Force of Friction?

1) The friction lab experiment tested how the force of friction is affected by increasing the mass placed on a surface. The independent variable was the number of blocks added, and the dependent variable was the measured frictional force. 2) Results showed that as the total mass increased by adding more blocks, the measured frictional force also increased. The slope of the line of best fit provided the coefficient of static and kinetic friction. 3) The coefficient of static friction was found to be greater than the coefficient of kinetic friction, indicating static friction is always greater than kinetic friction for the same surfaces, as expected.

Uploaded by

Ava Serie
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Friction Lab

Question: What factors affect the force of friction?

Pre Lab
1. A 3kg book is pulled by a scale across a tabletop at constant velocity. Draw a free body diagram of this
situation.

2. The scale that pulls the book reads 4.5 N. What is the force of friction?

3. If you add a book to the top of the first book, will the force of friction change? Write a hypothesis: If
more books are added on top the first book then ___________________________________________
because ___________________________________________.

4. The independent variable is the factor you change each time. You determine how much or little this
variable changes. What is the independent variable?

5. The dependant variable changes because you changed the independent variable. You cannot influence
how much the dependant variable changes. What is the dependant variable?

6. Constants are things that cannot change or they will change the results of the experiment. What three
things must remain constant so the experiment will be valid?
1. ___________________________
2. ___________________________
3. ___________________________

Procedure
1) Measure the mass of the metal block and record in the table. Calculate the weight of the block and put it
into the table.
2) Put the block on the cardboard. Attach the scale to the string. Pull the block horizontally across the
table top at constant velocity. Record the value of the pull on the table.
3) Have a different group member pull the block the same as in step 2 and record in the table.
4) Have another different group member pull the block the same as in step 2 and record.

Trial # Mass Weight Pulling Force

5) Calculate the average force and range of error.


The average pulling force on one block was: _____________+/-__________________Newtons.
Use this average as the first value in the next table.
Why not calculate the average for the mass and weight?
6) Draw a free body diagram for the cardboard and block (they move together, so you can treat them as one
object)

7) Use your free body diagram to determine the force of friction between the cardboard and the table.
Record this value in the table below.
8) Add another block on top of the first one. Record the (total) mass, weight, force of the pull and force of
friction.
9) Repeat with 3, 4, and 5 blocks.

# of Blocks Mass Weight Pulling Force Force of Friction

10) Use Logger Pro to make a graph of weight on the x axis and force of friction on the y axis.
11) Add error bars using the uncertainty calculated from one block (use a constant Fixed Value error).
12) Add a line of best fit to your graph.
13) Save this graph. You will share it with me when you’re done.
14) The slope of the graph tells the relationship between weight and force of friction.

What is the slope of the line?_________________


The slope of this line is a measure of the roughness or slippery-ness of the surface. The slope is a property of
the surface and is called the coefficient of friction. A large slope (coefficient) is a rough surface. A
small (coefficient) slope is a slippery surface. The coefficient of friction is a property of the surfaces
and does not depend on the pulling force!!
Part b) Static Friction
15) Repeat the same process as above, but now look closely and pull slowly to find the maximum pull that
can be applied before the block moves. This is the static force of friction and is always greater than the
kinetic. Record this maximum value in the table.
# of Blocks Mass Weight Pulling Force Force of Static
Friction

5
16) Add this data as a second data set in Logger Pro (Data -> New Data Set, then under “Data Set 2” in your
table, enter these weights as your x-values and force of static friction as your y-values)
17) Click on the Y-axis label and choose “More” to put both data sets on one graph.
18) Add a line of best fit for your new graph. Save the graph to share with me when you’re done.
19) What is the coefficient of static friction? _______________________
20) Is the coefficient of static friction greater or less than the coefficient of kinetic friction?
____________________

Conclusion:
As a group, write a conclusion for this lab. Be sure to include:
a) Restate the hypothesis
b) Did your data support your hypothesis? (use actual data number values with error ranges)
c) As the weight increases what happens to the frictional force?
d) Although forces changed, what value was from the graph was constant?
e) Compare the slope of the first data to the slopes of the other data.
f) What does the slope tell about the roughness of the surface? (use actual data numbers values to support
your answer)
g) How else could the experiment be changed to learn more about the friction on a surface?
h) What sources of error were present in the lab?
i) How would these sources of error have affected your data? (Be specific. Use your data to explain if
possible)

Copy and paste your two graphs (from above) into a word document, type your conclusion in this same
document, and share it with me via Google Drive or email when finished.

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