What quantity did you change?
Labs / Physics
Friction Ramp
Drag right on the ramp to tilt it steeper, or use the angle slider. The block holds still while static friction can match the pull of gravity down the slope — keep tilting and, the instant it can't, the block breaks loose and slides. The arrows are a live free-body diagram of every force in play.
Labs / Physics / Friction Ramp
Friction Ramp
Drag right on the ramp to tilt it steeper, or use the angle slider. The block holds still while static friction can match the pull of gravity down the slope — keep tilting and, the instant it can't, the block breaks loose and slides. The arrows are a live free-body diagram of every force in play.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Physics explains how changes in forces, energy, motion, and matter produce results we can measure. This model lets you test one part of that relationship at a time.
Explore
Try the model
mg sinθ 0 Nfs,max 0 NHolding
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- On wood (μ = 0.35), how steep does the ramp have to get before the block finally slips?
- Does making the block heavier change the angle at which it starts to slide — and can you see why in the arrows?
- Switch to ice. Can the block ever hold still, or does it slip almost immediately?
- Turn off "Kinetic < static". Once moving, does the block speed up faster or slower?
- Find the exact angle where mg sinθ just equals fs,max. What is special about tan of that angle compared to μ?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Name the quantity you changed, the quantity that responded, and the physical rule connecting them. Use a readout or visible change as evidence.
Check
Before you leave
What measurable result changed?
Which physical idea connects them?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.