State any two differences between contact and non –contact forces.
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A non-contact force is a force which acts on an object without coming physically in contact with it. The most familiar non-contact force is gravity, which confers weight. In contrast a contact force is a force applied to a body by another body that is in contact with it.
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Contact forces are when the object exerting the force is in contact with the object on which the force is exerted. E.g., if I punch someone on his nose, it is a contact force that I am applying, as my hand is in contact with his nose. On the other hand, like in mythological serials, I stand 10 feet away and I gesture with my hands and the other guy starts bleeding from his nose, it is a non-contact force that I am applying.
The distinction is largely historical and made mainly because of earlier preferences for contact over non-contact forces. The idea that an electron wiggling in my transmitter could make another electron in a receiver hundreds of metres (or km!) away wiggle was something that left most people uncomfortable. Hence the idea of a field: the wiggling electron creates a field that then moves to hundreds of metres away and the field then makes the other electron wiggle. Even the fact that the field traveled through a vacuum was something scientists were uncomfortable with, so they invented the ether.
Today, we know that even forces that we thought were contact forces are in fact not so. For example, if I replace the nuclei of the molecules of my hand and the victims nose by mustard seeds (approx 1 mm in radius!), then at the point of ”contact” the molecules of my hand would be a few hundred metres away from the molecules of his nose! His molecules would get affected by the em forces of my molecules, an action at a distance!!!!!
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2 comments from Jajapuram Venkatram Reddy
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The distinction is largely historical and made mainly because of earlier preferences for contact over non-contact forces. The idea that an electron wiggling in my transmitter could make another electron in a receiver hundreds of metres (or km!) away wiggle was something that left most people uncomfortable. Hence the idea of a field: the wiggling electron creates a field that then moves to hundreds of metres away and the field then makes the other electron wiggle. Even the fact that the field traveled through a vacuum was something scientists were uncomfortable with, so they invented the ether.
Today, we know that even forces that we thought were contact forces are in fact not so. For example, if I replace the nuclei of the molecules of my hand and the victims nose by mustard seeds (approx 1 mm in radius!), then at the point of ”contact” the molecules of my hand would be a few hundred metres away from the molecules of his nose! His molecules would get affected by the em forces of my molecules, an action at a distance!!!!!
6.8K viewsView Upvoters
1
2
2 comments from Jajapuram Venkatram Reddy
Sponsored by OPPO Mobile India
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