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On the note of friction and traction - I've heard a lot of teams pulling the "f = uN" stunt recently. That doesn't work. Tell me if this logic is correct - carpet is not a surface. It's a conglomeration of threads strung together, and so you can't accurately test any sort of friction. Also, if you have things like file cards (which have next to no traction on any other surface) they dig into the threads and latch on, and don't really count as traction...
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Carpet is indeed a surface but F=uN is not the correct equation for dealing with rolling friction. Take drag racers, for example. In a physics lecture, they will explain to you that if you have a box of uniform substance that has more surface area on one side and less on another, it will take it the same time to slide down a hill on either side. Why do drag racers have big tires then? Surface area does matter when it comes to wheels.
~Tom Fairchild~
P.S. Carpet is a surface but things like the file cards just have very high u's. If you experiment with it, you can get fairly consistant static friction and kenetic friction measurements. Once again though, that doesn't work for rolling friction.