How to Calculate Braking (Frictional) Force
For the last section of this lesson, let's relate the momentum of a moving object to the braking time and friction.
Here's the math equation by which we can calculate the braking (frictional) force:
See if you can figure out how to express this equation as a sentence, and what it means. You'll be asked this question on your assignment for the lesson.
However, notice that we have problem - there are two values that we don't know in the equation above. We don't know the stopping force (F), and we also don't know the braking time (t). So we'll need a 2nd math equation that allows us to find braking time from braking distance. Here it is:
