Consider the block shown above supported by feet at A and B that is at rest on a rough floor. A horizontal force P is applied to the right on the block. As the magnitude of P is increased slowly, two ...

The upper figure shows the viscoelastic toy model proposed here, characterized by only six independent parameters. Surprisingly, this simple mechanical model produces complicated system dynamics, as ...

I learned to respect friction, as a phenomenon with many nuances, when I was a graduate student. One day, while teaching a problem session in elementary mechanics, I unwisely invented a new problem to ...