How to Use frictional in a Sentence
frictional
adjective-
This provides a frictional force and is the source of much of a tyre’s grip.
—Laurie Winkless, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2021
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This frictional force pushes the center of mass to the right.
—Rhett Allain, WIRED, 17 Feb. 2023
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As the tower bends, the blocks separate and lose the frictional force that holds them in place.
—Popular Mechanics, 4 Jan. 2023
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Finally, there is the frictional force (Ff) between the tires and the road.
—Wired, 27 Aug. 2019
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The frictional force pushes to the left and underneath the center of mass.
—Rhett Allain, Wired, 21 Oct. 2020
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How much does the frictional force increase with each new loop around the cylinder?
—Rhett Allain, WIRED, 22 Jan. 2015
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Bubbles head up in the center where frictional drag from the glass is less and down on the outside as the top gets crowded.
—Christian Millman, Discover Magazine, 28 May 2013
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Much like how your car’s brake pads work, Fred’s feet absorb all the frictional forces until the stones stop rolling.
—Kyle Hill, Discover Magazine, 22 Apr. 2013
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The balls move without a frictional force and without rolling.
—Rhett Allain, Wired, 17 Dec. 2021
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There is a frictional force pushing on the sliding whale.
—Rhett Allain, Wired, 14 Sep. 2020
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In Clark’s view, the purpose of the owl’s velvet and the fringes is to reduce frictional noise between the feathers while flapping.
—Dana MacKenzie, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Apr. 2020
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Years of drought have killed tree roots, reducing their frictional ties to the soil, and weakened the general health of trees, McBride said.
—Claire Hao, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 Mar. 2023
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Of course, at the start of the motion, this frictional force would be greater than the artificial gravity.
—Rhett Allain, Wired, 14 May 2021
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The cells flex to produce initial frictional forces, then cells crumple like a car bumper on impact.
—Gregg Ellman Tribune News Service, Star Tribune, 12 Aug. 2020
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For that to happen, an external force has to be applied to overcome the frictional forces.
—Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 23 Sep. 2019
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Experts say silk is a great option because the material is smooth and soft, which limits the frictional forces on the skin.
—Michelle Pugle, Health, 13 Feb. 2023
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First, there's the static frictional force, which is the case when the two surfaces are stationary relative to each other.
—Rhett Allain, WIRED, 7 July 2023
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The hope is that the brakes won’t somehow otherwise burn out from overuse amid nonstop frictional forces being applied.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 17 May 2021
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When Quintanilla moves his hand across the screen, the TeslaTouch provides a frictional force on his finger.
—Sushma Subramanian, Discover Magazine, 25 Aug. 2015
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But as in all subduction zones around the world, the movement builds frictional stresses between the two plates that result in frequent earthquakes.
—Seth Mydans, New York Times, 21 Nov. 2022
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On the other hand, sidewinder snakes most likely phased out the spikes in favor of a smoother, frictionless belly that can move in any direction with no frictional drag.
—Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Feb. 2021
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The second block had a frictional force acting on it, whereas the rolling cart had essentially no friction.
—Rhett Allain, WIRED, 22 Aug. 2019
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At a certain velocity, the frictional forces such as drag and buoyancy equal the downward force of gravity and the object cannot go any faster.
—Quanta Magazine, 26 May 2016
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The jet itself is driven by the Earth’s uneven heat budget, with hot tropics and cold (though not matching) poles, and the Coriolis force, the frictional result of the Earth’s rotation.
—Geoff Fox, Slate Magazine, 5 Jan. 2018
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In the past few years, the Bristol researchers found that insects did not just pick up charge while flying but also by rubbing against each other and walking on frictional surfaces.
—Oliver Whang, New York Times, 26 Oct. 2022
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In a resting bottle of champagne—in other words, one that is ripe for the drinking—this outward pressure exerted on the cork is balanced by the static frictional force between the cork and the bottle’s walls.
—Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 3 June 2022
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Carnot found that even a perfect heat engine (without frictional heat loss among the moving parts), can’t achieve 100% efficiency whereby all the heat is converted to work.
—Scott Bembenek, Discover Magazine, 7 June 2017
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There are frictional costs associated with moving, but people will do the mental math and figure out if the long-term gain from a lower tax bill exceeds the short-term pain from moving.
—Jared Dillian, Twin Cities, 11 July 2019
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The problem is that such a system incurs higher frictional losses than a typical part-time, on-demand AWD system, and that reduces mileage.
—Dan Neil, WSJ, 9 Nov. 2018
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With only this tiny contact point supporting the pencil, the frictional force can't really exert any torque to stop it from rotating.
—Rhett Allain, Wired, 8 Mar. 2021
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'frictional.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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