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Unread 05-01-2009, 20:55
feilmeier feilmeier is offline
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Re: Propulsion that does not involve driving wheels

Quote:
Weight, when directed perpendicularly to a surface such as the ground, is also known as Normal Force for purposes of determining friction between an object and the surface. This increases the frictional force that is available, increasing the traction.
Indeed. I did not mention normal force, because of two reasons. By Newton's second law, F=MA. If you simulate an increase in mass without reducing the acceleration (ie. gravity), then of course you increase the normal force. The other reason is that weight is measured in Newtons, as is the normal force. The only difference between normal force and weight is if the object suppyling the normal force is incapable of holding the weight. If suddenly robots started falling through holes in the floor during the game, then we would have to revert back to using the term normal force. But for this case where we are certain that the floor will hold us up, the term weight is equally valid as the term normal force.

Since we also know that traction is commonly used to refer to static friction/adhesive friction as opposed to kinetic friction/sliding friction, by the very definition of Rule <R06>, to add any sort of metal to the wheels is to increase the traction of the device, and thereby banned. Come January 7th, let us ask the Q and A, and see if indeed this approach is acceptable.

Last edited by feilmeier : 05-01-2009 at 21:01. Reason: More things to say