Without the force called friction, cars would skid off the roadway, humans couldn't stride down the sidewalk, and objects would tumble off your kitchen counter and onto the floor. Even so, how ...

Here’s the rub with friction — scientists don’t really know how it works. Although humans have been harnessing its power since rubbing two sticks together to build the first fire, the physics of ...

I have a problem. I admit it. Isn't admitting you have a problem the first step to recovery? My problem is Angry Birds Space. I just can't stop trying to figure out how this stuff works. Oh, I am not ...

Memory fault: friction study could provide new insights into why earthquakes happen. (Courtesy: iStock/allanswort) Experiments by Sam Dillavou and Shmuel Rubinstein at Harvard University have, for the ...

One approach to ultrahigh-density data storage involves the use of arrays of atomic force microscope probes to read and write data on a thin polymer film, but damage to the ultrasharp silicon probe ...

This article has been updated to include comments from Raymond Goldstein and Patrick Warren. It is a mathematical puzzle that stumped Galileo, but researchers in France think they have discovered how ...

It’s no wonder earthquakes are so difficult to predict. Even simple laboratory simulations of the friction breakdowns that send tectonic plates lurching into motion are maddeningly difficult to ...

You're sitting in physics class, working on a traditional problem involving forces and acceleration, when you start to wonder where these terms even came from. Were they just dreamed up to bring ...

Some forces are called contact forces because they require objects to touch. One is tension force, found in stretched wires. Another is the force found in a spring. And last are resistive forces: ...