Slipperiness is when a surface has a low

coefficient of friction Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction: *Dry friction is a force that opposes the relative lateral motion of ...

, allowing objects to glide across the surface. People walking on slippery surfaces are likely to

slip Slip or SLIP may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Slip (fish), also known as Black Sole * Slip (horticulture), a small cutting of a plant as a specimen or for grafting * Muscle slip, a branching of a muscle, in anatomy Computing and ...

fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

. A surface can for example be slippery due to it being wet, or due to it being icy. There are several competing theories about why ice is slippery.

Road slipperiness Road slipperiness is a condition of low skid resistance due to insufficient road friction. It is a result of snow, ice, water, loose material and the texture of the road surface on the traction produced by the wheels of a vehicle. Road slipperin ...

is a major area of

road safety Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-road ...

, but various means have also been developed to measure walkway and deck slipperiness in order to develop

health and safety standards Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at wor ...

.Wen-Ruey Chang, Theodore K. Courtney, Raoul Grongvist ''Measuring Slipperiness: Human Locomotion and Surface Factors'' 2002 0415298288 "A number of 'purely' subjective approaches (e.g. paired comparisons) have been applied to measure slipperiness. Human subjects seem to be capable of differentiating the slipperiness of floors (Yoshioka et al. 1978, 1979, Swensen et al."

References

Safety Friction {{classicalmechanics-stub

See also

References