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Excerpt

A force that arises when one macroscopic body presses against another.

Motivation for Concept

When one macroscopic body encounters another, the bodies cannot simply pass through each other. Instead, their contact results in a change in the motion of each body.

Special Cases

Because contact forces are so common in mechanics, there are several important special cases of contact forces that are commonly encountered.

  • Applied Force:
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    applied force
    applied force
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  • Friction:
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    friction
    friction
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  • Normal Force:
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    normal force
    normal force
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Wiki Markup
{table:border=1|frame=void|rules=cols|cellpadding=8|cellspacing=0} {tr:valign=top} {td:width=250|bgcolor=#F2F2F2} {live-template:Left Column} {td} {td} {excerpt}A [force] that arises when one macroscopic body presses against another. When one of the bodies is a flat surface like a floor, wall or ramp the contact force is usually split into components called the [friction] force and the [normal force].{excerpt} ||Page Contents|| |{toc:indent=10px}| h2. Motivation for Concept When one macroscopic body encounters another, the bodies cannot simply pass through each other. Instead, their contact results in a change in the motion of each body. h2. Special Cases h4. Applied Force When a person purposefully presses against another object, the resulting contact force is often called an applied force. h4. Normal Force An object in contact with a surface will always be subject to a contact force that has a component perpendicular to the surface. That perpendicular component guarantees that the object will not pass through the surface. It receives the special name of [normal force], derived from the mathematical meaning of normal (perpendicular). h4. Friction An object in contact with a surface will sometimes experience a contact force that has a component parallel to the surface. Since the _perpendicular_ component receives a special label as the normal force, the parallel component is also generally given a name: the force of [friction]. This division of the contact force is useful, since in many cases the [friction] component of the contact force can be related to the [normal|normal force] component. {td} {tr} {table} {live-template:RELATE license}