if you push on a heavy box that is at rest, you must exert some force to start its motion. once the box is sliding, why does a smaller force to maintain its motion?



Answer :

If you push on a heavy box that is at rest, you must exert some force to start its motion. once the box is sliding, why does a smaller force to maintain its motion because the potential energy has turned into kinetic energy and energy is not lost on the box, some is lost to friction, but most of it is still kept.

Two events are taking place. To start box moving, you must first briefly accelerate it, and to momentarily accelerate something, you must push it in order to overcome inertia. You would still need to push it even if it were on an air hockey table with very little friction.

Second, sliding friction is typically less than static friction for many pairs of surface types (such as cardboard box on wood). The force you were providing will instead be used to overcome inertia, not friction, as soon as the box begins to move, and the box will lurch forward until your reflexes catch up. As a result, as soon as the box begins to move, the frictional force rapidly diminishes.

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