Friction is one of the most important forces studied in classical mechanics, and still is the subject of pedagogical literature. In a small series of problems stated below, we consider a particle sliding down a curve under the actions of gravity and kinetic friction. Unlike many of the referenced sources, we neglect the centripetal force arising on the curved portions of the incline (i.e., assume that the centripetal acceleration is much smaller than g) and, instead of parameters such as the location of the release point of a particle, concentrate on the horizontal displacement of the particle.
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We consider the case of μ < [y(0) – y(xb)]/ xb, when, according to Eq. (6), xf > xb.
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