explain... (n/m) posted by MaTT (90TT) on January 06, 2004 at 01:48 PM
Message
your hanging from the edge of a building on a vertical pole. would you rather be holding the pole with just your fingers or your whole hand, even though the force (how hard you can squeeze) and the coefficient of friction of your skin and the pole are the same? what you are not seeing is the application of the force. the relationship between the downforce and the frictional force is the coefficient of friction, but the more surface area there is, the more that force can be applied.