Each of the four wheels of the vehicle weighs 40 lb and is mounted on a 4in diameter journal. The total weight of the vehicle is 960 lb, including wheels, and is distributed equally on all four wheels. If a force P = 16 lb is required to keep the vehicle rolling at a constant low speed on a horizontal surface, calculate the coefficient of friction which exists in the wheel bearings.

Question

The answer I calcualted was 10 and I know that can't be correct because the coefficients of friction are always less than 1

Answer 1

Your suppostion about being less than one is incorrect. What if the object being moved were superglued to the surface. IT can be greater than one.

NOw, the prob.

Each bearing has 960/4 lb force vetically on it.
each bearing is getting 4lb force to maintain movement.

forcefriction=normal*mu
mu= 4/230

Answer 2

this still isn't the correct answer though. my book says that it's 0.204