Hi! I'm Steve the Snowman! Welcome to my new Winter Wonderland adventure! Today, me and my other Winter friends will be talking about force, friction, and gravity! Let's go to our first stop, with my twin brother, Sean the Snowman!

Hey Sean! Can you help me understand what forces are?

Sure Steve! A force is a push or pull applied to an object! Forces are expressed using weight!

Net force is determined by combining forces. For example, if the wheels of a car push the car forward, then that is net force!

drag

wheels

Thanks Steve! That really helped me. Just one more question. What is balanced forces and unbalanced forces?

Great! A Balanced force is when the object is stationary. An Unbalanced force is when the object accelerates.

Balanced force example - 2 people playing tug a war that are the same weight. Unbalanced force example - 2 people playing tug a war that are not the same weight.

Awesome! Thanks for helping me understand what forces are!

Now onto the next stop! Let's go see Santa Clause to find out some information on friction!

Merry Christmas Santa! Do you think you can tell me a little bit about friction?

Ho ho ho! Friction is the force that opposes the sliding motion of 2 touching surfaces. Friction depends on surface texture and the force pushing on the surface.

There are 4 types of friction. Static, sliding, rolling, and fluid. Static friction is when 2 surfaces are not moving past each other.

force you

apply

static friction