• Question: do you think in the future there will be unwearable things? (e.g car tyres)

    Asked by FaZe Kabowse to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Great question! In the future, we’ll doubtless have better materials, but I think in the long run friction will always win and wear down things like car tyres. Hopefully, though, we’ll design better materials that last longer before they wear down. And who knows – if we follow the example of Japan and begin investing in frictionless MagLev trains (magnetic levitation using superconductors) then maybe we can avoid encountering friction altogether!

    • Photo: Sarah Beasley

      Sarah Beasley answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Agreed – levitation would definitely help us to get rid of friction. How about hover cars? Travelling on water? Lots of images of the future see us travelling in the air rather than on the ground. It’d get rid of certain types of friction… but we’d have a whole different set of issues!

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Friction is a pretty fundamental force, so I don’t think we’ll get around it entirely ever, but we can reduce the load – the maglev trains the others have mentioned are a pretty solid start, and other projects like the Hyperloop are hoping to beat the friction game in other ways.

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