Question

Our textbook describes a common model for friction (both static and kinetic) in which the area of contact between interacting surfaces is irrelevant to the size of the frictional force. However, we can't help noticing how wide the tires are on drag racing cars! One explanation for the large size of the tires would be to give a larger contact patch between the tire and the track in search of more traction. But our model says contact area doesn't matter. Clarify this situation in a mini essay of 2 or 3 sentences. Sort out whether contact area matters or not. Can you think of other advantages of really wide tires -- in addition to how cool they look.

Answer 1

Contact area is not a factor of the amount of friction force acting between two bodies in contact, preventing rolling or sliding

Reasons:

• Friction force is the product of the normal reaction and the coefficient of friction.

• The coefficient of friction is higher in softer tires than hard tires which are required to be wider to reduce the pressure that can cause deformation withstood by hard tires.

• The wide tires in drag racing cars can be thought of being made from the soft compound tire material having a higher coefficient of friction that increases the friction force.

Other advantages of wide tires are;

• Increased traction

• Shorter stopping distance

Learn more here:

brainly.com/question/17209968