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CrowdScience: What is friction?

Discussion & Talk

GettyImages-1064463150_crop.jpg

16/12/2022 GMT

What is friction?

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, What is friction?

Everything that moves involves frictional losses, but what actually is it?

Every movement involves friction. Lubricants may reduce it, brake pads aim to maximise it, but what actually is going on? And could we ever get rid of friction completely?

CrowdScience listener David was playing snooker in Thailand when he started thinking how such a smooth ball was dependent on the rough green baize of the table to bring it to a stop. Would it be possible to play snooker at all in a completely frictionless universe?
Sometimes friction produces heat. Could we ever control it completely?
We try to reduce friction in some cases by using lubricants, whilst at other times like braking at a traffic junction we depend upon friction entirely. Anand Jagatia heads to Edinburgh in Scotland, UK, to meet some true masters of this mysterious entity: players of the winter sport Curling. What exactly is friction, and does thinking about it tell us something deeper about the universe?
Taking part:

Jennifer Dodds, Team GB Olympic Gold medallist
Dave Lieth, Head of performance services, British Curling
Susan Perkin, Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Oxford 
Roger Lewis, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield

Presented by Anand Jagatia
Produced by Alex Mansfield

With thanks to David for his question.

[Image: curling. Credit: Getty Images]

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