Friction is an important key force within the world of forces and the world of physics.

Friction is a force that occurs when an object moves in any direction (kinetic movement). Friction acts on the object by adding a resistant force, trying to counteract the velocity or kinetic energy that an object is making use of. Friction is measured in the common force unit, newtons (after Isaac Newton), abbreviated with a “N”. Without friction, every object would be in constant movement, and the object is unable to direct its velocity towards any other direction. When the friction and the velocity of an object is equal (v = F), constant velocity occurs, whereas when the forces are not in balance (v > F) acceleration motion occurs. In our experiment, we will try to investigate whether the mass of an object has an influence on the friction needed to counteract the velocity. To balance this test, the objects must move at the same speed, covering the same distance.

Objects of Use / Apparatus

• Dynamometer
• Ruler
• Surface
• Stopwatch
• Objects of different masses
• Machinery for constant velocity

Controlled Variables

• Gravitational force [g] (9.8 m/s[square] or 10m/s[square]).

Dependent Variables

• Friction force (F or Ff)

Independent Variables

• Mass of the object [m].
  • Surface
  • Surface area of the object

Firstly we are going to make sure that every experiment is balanced, and consists of the same properties as all the other, otherwise we will have answers that will vary greatly. For this reason, we might have to repeat the same experiment a few times, to make sure that we get the most accurate answer. We calculate this by adding the results up and then divide the number by the amount of times, a specific experiment was performed. It is very crucial to make even and fair experiments!

We will find a distance that suits us well, to test out the different masses. A distance between 30 to 100 cm (11.8 to 39.4 inches) should do well for our test. The speed will be between 1 to 5 km/h (0.6 to 3.1/mph). We expect the masses of our objects to be between 100g to 1000g (3.52 to 35.2 oz) and preferably 3 to 5 different masses.

At first, we are going to mark the distance on the surface with something, making every 10 cm a checkpoint for the stopwatch to compare results with the other ones. This means that each object needs to travel every 10 cm within the same amount of time. We place the mass at the surface and drag or move it along the surface, with constant velocity reaching every checkpoint within the same amount of time, measuring the time using the stopwatch. We are able to measure the progress because we will attach a dynamometer to the mass that we drag or move. Then we note down our results. We will perform this test with the first mass, for about three times or two times, to make our results comparable with the other results.

With the next mass we repeat the first step about two or three times (depending on what we have done at the first step). With the third mass we will do the same to note down the results and compare them, as we did with the first step. Nextly, we repeat the first step with the fourth mass. Finally, we repeat it once again with the fifth mass and compare. Once we have calculated an average for each mass, we can compare the amount of friction being influenced on each individual mass. After comparing our results, we are able to make a conclusion to the question ‘Does mass affect the frictional resistance? We highly expect that the different masses have impact on, whether or not masses increase or decrease the frictional force needed to counteract the velocity. We hope to find some interesting conclusions and we hope that our theory about the relation between masses and the amount of frictional needed to counteract the mass, was right and quiet accurate.