Tyler Schafer

Cameron Tennyson
Brendan Harris
Kenton Dewald
Friction Lab
Introduction:
The purpose of this lab is to measure kinetic and static friction and to figure out how they
work and calculate them. We will use a form of technology to help us in our experimentation and
further our knowledge of the relationship between force and friction. We will be testing wood on
wood and sandpaper on wood, and we will find both the static and kinetic friction for both cases.
The force that it takes to pull the block of wood will be divided by the force normal, and this will
give us our coefficients of friction.
Materials:
Laptop
Dual-Range Force Sensor
LabQuest Machine
Wooden plank with pulley
Wood block with string attached (sandpaper on one side)
Vernier Force Sensor
Procedure:
1. Get wooden plank with a pulley attached
2. Get piece of wood with sandpaper on one side and string attached to it.
3. Find mass of wood block.
4. Set up the Vernier Force Sensor using a laptop and a LabQuest Machine.
5. Loop the string attached to the wood block around the Vernier Force Sensor.
6. Press button on computer to start collecting data. Make sure that the string is flaccid
when starting the collection of data.
7. Pull the force sensor until the block of wood starts moving, then continue pulling until
data collection stops.
8. Record the peak at the beginning (this is the force required to overcome static friction)
and find the average of the rest of the points in the data (this is will help find kinetic
friction).
9. Repeat multiple times to find an average of the numbers so that data is more accurate.
10. Repeat Steps 6-9, but put the sandpaper side down this time.
11. Use the data to create data charts and find the coefficient for friction.
Diagram:

Data Tables:
Wood on Wood: Static
Trial #

Force Used (N)

Coefficient of Friction

Trial 1

.296

.298

.399

.402

.385

.388

Trial 2

.337

.340

.395

.398

.395

.398

Trial 3

.381

.384

.367

.370

.340

.343

Trial 4

.409

.412

.381

.384

.347

.350

Average Coefficient of Friction (, static): .372

Sandpaper on Wood: Static
Trial #

Force Used (N)

Coefficient of Friction

Trial 1

.587

.591

.684

.690

.635

.640

Trial 2

.594

.599

.553

.558

.491

.495

Trial 3

.615

.620

.546

.551

.677

.683

Trial 4

.663

.668

.649

.654

.553

.558

Average Coefficient of Friction (, static): .609

Wood on Wood: Kinetic

Trial #

Force Used (N)

Coefficient of Friction

Trial 1

.222

.224

.256

.258

.227

.229

Trial 2

.229

.231

.236

.238

.229

.231

Average Coefficient of Friction (, Kinetic): .234

Sandpaper on Wood: Kinetic
Trial #

Force Used (N)

Coefficient of Friction

Trial 1

.491

.495

.533

.537

.524

.528

Trial 2

.512

.516

.534

.538

.529

.533

Average Coefficient of Friction (, Kinetic): .521

Calculations:
101.1 g 0.1011 kg

.1011 kg x 9.81 m/s^2 = .991791

Fn = .991791 N

Discussion:
The data that we took came out to be precise as we took the different tests with the sandpaper
and wood sides of the block. We took the average of the data to make sure that the data was as
accurate as possible. We realized, obviously, that there was more friction on the sandpaper side

than the original wood side. There was less friction for the wood side on each trial and more
friction on the sandpaper side for each trial. The sandpaper isnt smooth which causes more
kinetic friction. As for the calculations, it makes sense that the coefficient of friction for
sandpaper on wood is much higher compared to the wood on wood. We can tell that our data is
plausible because in both cases, the coefficients of kinetic friction is lower that the coefficients of
static friction. The data we collected was extremely accurate due to the fact we used the DualRange Force Sensor. There was also little to no human error because we used a computer and
the sensor.