The sideways pushing force from the finger. There MUST be a backwards pushing force to cancel the finger force. This is the static friction force. OK, time for the next experiment.

How can a horde of active robots be automatically brought to a standstill? By arresting their dynamics in a self-sustained ...

Robots acting as macroscale analogs of active nanoparticles stop moving through friction alone, revealing a self-sustained ...

This must mean that the static friction force is now 1.5 Newtons. So the static frictional force exerts whatever force it has to keep the two surfaces from sliding. It does this up to its maximum ...

1.1 What is friction? Take this everyday example: when a coffee mug rests on a flat table, the kinetic frictional force is zero. There is no force trying to move the mug across the table, so there is ...

Friction is a type of force, or a "push" or a "pull," that can act on objects. In physics the frictional force between two surfaces is determined by something called the coefficient of friction.

Friction is a force between two surfaces that are sliding, or trying to slide, across each other. You can find out more using this Bitesize KS2 Science guide.