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Mechanics

Friction in a spin

Nature volume 424, pages 1005–1006 (2003)Cite this article

The mechanics of friction may seem the stuff of high-school physics, but only now are some aspects of the problem being understood. A spinning coin is the subject of a new exploration of frictional forces.

One of the most unlikely revivals of our time is that of the science of mechanics. The first great era of classical mechanics culminated in the work of Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736–1813) and William Hamilton (1788–1856). But in recent decades, work on nonlinear dynamics, chaos theory, fluid dynamics and the mechanics of biomolecules has driven a highly visible revival of this science. The latest instalment, by Farkas et al.1 in Physical Review Letters, on the dynamics of spinning disks, illustrates a convergence of the scientific aesthetic and method that is taking mechanics in a new direction.

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Figure 1: Putting a spin on it.

References

  1. Farkas, Z., Bartels, G., Unger, T. & Wolf, D. E. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 248302 (2003).

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  2. Bowden, F. P. & Tabor, D. The Friction and Lubrication of Solids (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2001).

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  3. Halsey, T. C. & Mehta, A. (eds) Challenges in Granular Physics (World Scientific, Singapore, 2003).

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  1. ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, Annandale, 08801, New Jersey, USA

    Thomas C. Halsey

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  1. Thomas C. Halsey
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Correspondence to Thomas C. Halsey.

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Halsey, T. Friction in a spin. Nature 424, 1005–1006 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/4241005a

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