Spring fitted doors close by themselves when released. You want to keep the door open for a long time, say for an hour. If you put a half kg stone in front of the open door, it does not help. The stone slides with the door and the door gets closed. However, if you sandwitch a 20 g piece of wood in the small gap between the door and the floor, the door stays open. Explain why a much lighter piece of wood is able to keep the door open while the heavy stone fails.

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Solution

In the first case, the normal reaction force is equal to the weight of the stone, hence the stone slides easily because the friction force is very less. However, in the second case, a small piece of wood is sandwiched, which increases the normal reaction force on the wood due to the weight of the door. Hence, greater the normal reaction force on the wood, the greater will be the frictional force between wood and the floor.

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Spring fitted doors close by themselves when released. You want to keep the door open for a long time, say for an hour. If you put a half kg stone in front of the open door, it does not help. The stone slides with the door and the door gets closed. However, if you sandwich a 20 gm piece of wood in the small gap between the door and the floor, the door stays open. Explain why a much lighter piece of wood is able to keep the door open while the heavy stone fails. Assume coefficient of friction between stone and ground and wood and ground are the same.

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