1.

SURFACE AREA DOES NOT AFFECT FRICTION

Friction does not depend on the amount of surface area incontact between the moving bodies or (within certain limit
s) onthe relative speed of the bodies. It does, however, depend on themagnitude of the forces holding the bodies toge
ther. When a bodyis moving over a horizontal surface, it presses down against thesurface with a force equal to its we
ight, i.e., to the pull of gravityupon it; an increase in the weight of the body causes an increasein the amount of resist
ance offered to the relative motion of the surfaces in contact.
http://www.reference.com/browse/friction

Although a larger area of contact between two surfaces would create a larger source of frictional forces, it also
reduces the pressure between the two surfaces for a given force holding them together. Since pressure equals force
divided by the area of contact, it works out that the increase in friction generating area is exactly offset by the
reduction in pressure; the resulting frictional forces, then, are dependent only on the frictional coefficient of the
materials and the FORCE holding them together.
If you were to increase the force as you increased the area to keep PRESSURE the same, then increasing the area
WOULD increase the frictional force between the two surfaces.
Answered by: Paul Walorski, B.A. Physics, Part-time Physics Instructor
http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae140.cfm

Albert Manfredi The Boeing Company

I think that contact area has nothing to do with the coefficient of friction, although it could have something to do
with friction.

Friction, static or dynamic, is typically described as the normal force between the surfaces multiplied by the
coefficient of friction. But another way to think of it is that friction is a function of the pressure between the two
surfaces (force per unit area), multiplied by coefficient of friction, multiplied by the contact area.

So, this shows that changing the contact area will affect friction only if you simultaneously increase the normal force
between the two objects. It also shows that the coefficient of friction is not affected by either the contact area or the
normal force.

http://www.researchgate.net/post/How_will_co_efficient_of_friction_change_with_respect_to_the_change_in_conta
ct_area

The force due to friction is generally independent of the contact area between the two surfaces. This means
that even if you have two heavy objects of the same mass, where one is half as long and twice as high as the other
one, they still experience the same frictional force when you drag them over the ground. This makes sense, because
if the area of contact doubles, you may think that you should get twice as much friction. But when you double the
length of an object, you halve the force on each square centimeter, because less weight is above it to push down.
Note that this relationship breaks down when the surface area gets too small, since then the coefficient of friction
increases because the object may begin to dig into the surface.

By Steven Holzner from Physics I For Dummies, 2nd Edition

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-surface-area-affects-the-force-of-friction.html

2. FOUR CONDITIONS OF ELEVATOR PROBLEMS

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circles/Lesson-4/Weightlessness-in-Orbit

3. WEIGHTLESSNES
Meaning and Cause of Weightlessness
Weightlessness is simply a sensation experienced by an individual when there are no external objects
touching one's body and exerting a push or pull upon it. Weightless sensations exist when all contact forces are
removed. These sensations are common to any situation in which you are momentarily (or perpetually) in a state of
free fall. When in free fall, the only force acting upon your body is the force of gravity - a non-contact force. Since
the force of gravity cannot be felt without any other opposing forces, you would have no sensation of it. You would
feel weightless when in a state of free fall.
These feelings of weightlessness are common at amusement parks for riders of roller coasters and other
rides in which riders are momentarily airborne and lifted out of their seats. Suppose that you were lifted in your
chair to the top of a very high tower and then your chair was suddenly dropped. As you and your chair fall towards
the ground, you both accelerate at the same rate - g. Since the chair is unstable, falling at the same rate as you, it is
unable to push upon you. Normal forces only result from contact with stable, supporting surfaces. The force of
gravity is the only force acting upon your body. There are no external objects touching your body and exerting a
force. As such, you would experience a weightless sensation. You would weigh as much as you always do (or as
little) yet you would not have any sensation of this weight.
Weightlessness is only a sensation; it is not a reality corresponding to an individual who has lost weight. As
you are free falling on a roller coaster ride (or other amusement park ride), you have not momentarily lost your
weight. Weightlessness has very little to do with weight and mostly to do with the presence or absence of contact
forces. If by "weight" we are referring to the force of gravitational attraction to the Earth, a free-falling person has
not "lost their weight;" they are still experiencing the Earth's gravitational attraction. Unfortunately, the confusion of
a person's actual weight with one's feeling of weight is the source of many misconceptions.

Weightlessness in Orbit

Earth-orbiting astronauts are weightless for the same reasons that riders of a free-falling amusement park
ride or a free-falling elevator are weightless. They are weightless because there is no external contact force pushing
or pulling upon their body. In each case, gravity is the only force acting upon their body. Being an action-at-a-
distance force, it cannot be felt and therefore would not provide any sensation of their weight. But for certain, the
orbiting astronauts weigh something; that is, there is a force of gravity acting upon their body. In fact, if it were not
for the force of gravity, the astronauts would not be orbiting in circular motion. It is the force of gravity that supplies
the centripetal force requirement to allow the inward acceleration that is characteristic of circular motion. The force
of gravity is the only force acting upon their body. The astronauts are in free-fall. Like the falling amusement park
rider and the falling elevator rider, the astronauts and their surroundings are falling towards the Earth under the sole
influence of gravity. The astronauts and all their surroundings - the space station with its contents - are falling
towards the Earth without colliding into it. Theirtangential velocity allows them to remain in orbital motion while
the force of gravity pulls them inward.

Many students believe that orbiting astronauts are weightless because they do not experience a force of
gravity. So to presume that the absence of gravity is the cause of the weightlessness experienced by orbiting
astronauts would be in violation of circular motion principles. If a person believes that the absence of gravity is the
cause of their weightlessness, then that person is hard-pressed to come up with a reason for why the astronauts are
orbiting in the first place. The fact is that there must be a force of gravity in order for there to be an orbit.

One might respond to this discussion by adhering to a second misconception: the astronauts are weightless
because the force of gravity is reduced in space. The reasoning goes as follows: "with less gravity, there would be
less weight and thus they would feel less than their normal weight." While this is partly true, it does not explain their
sense of weightlessness. The force of gravity acting upon an astronaut on the space station is certainly less than on
Earth's surface. But how much less? Is it small enough to account for a significant reduction in weight? Absolutely
not! If the space station orbits at an altitude of approximately 400 km above the Earth's surface, then the value of g
at that location will be reduced from 9.8 m/s/s (at Earth's surface) to approximately 8.7 m/s/s. This would cause an
astronaut weighing 1000 N at Earth's surface to be reduced in weight to approximately 890 N when in orbit. While
this is certainly a reduction in weight, it does not account for the absolutely weightless sensations that astronauts
experience. Their absolutely weightless sensations are the result of having "the floor pulled out from under them"
(so to speak) as they are free falling towards the Earth.

Still other physics students believe that weightlessness is due to the absence of air in space. Their
misconception lies in the idea that there is no force of gravity when there is no air. According to them, gravity does
not exist in a vacuum. But this is not the case. Gravity is a force that acts between the Earth's mass and the mass of
other objects that surround it. The force of gravity can act across large distances and its effect can even penetrate
across and into the vacuum of outer space. Perhaps students who own this misconception are confusing the force of
gravity with air pressure. Air pressure is the result of surrounding air particles pressing upon the surface of an object
in equal amounts from all directions. The force of gravity is not affected by air pressure. While air pressure reduces
to zero in a location void of air (such as space), the force of gravity does not become 0 N. Indeed the presence of a
vacuum results in the absence of air resistance; but this would not account for the weightless sensations. Astronauts
merely feel weightless because there is no external contact force pushing or pulling upon their body. They are in a
state of free fall.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circles/Lesson-4/Weightlessness-in-Orbit