Re: Friction.

[palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)]

> Think about the case of a motor bike (in my case a ZZR1100). They would
> not go round a corner if static friction was the only thing holding
> them on the road.

What you really mean to say, I'm sure, is that tires on pavement are
inadequately described by the simple model of friction we teach high
school students. You're right, of course, but simply renaming the
process doesn't conceal the fact that the model itself has a very
limited scope of validity. I think it is important to teach that to
students as well; they should understand what the difference between
an empirical approximation and a law of Nature is. After all, if
(old fashioned) wrist watches had been powered by springs which
obeyed Hooke's law thay wouldn't have kept time very well, would they?

Leigh