Resumen de Nonstick Sliding.
This article discusses nonstick sliding that scientists at the University of Basel have discovered by using a crystal of salt. Friction arises when the atoms of a sliding surface" pluck" opposing atoms, producing vibrations that flitter energy away into heat. If the solids interact weakly enough, they should be able to rub without making vibrations--in other words, without friction. Ernst Meyer and his co-workers at the University of Basel have conclusively borne out this decades-old prediction by sliding a custom-made silicon tip over a crystal of salt. When the downward force on the tip is high, the atoms in the crystal get stretched like springs, and the tip repeatedly sticks and slips its way over the corrugated crystal surface, with each slip dissipating energy into heat. The stick-and-slip results were scheduled to appear in an April issue of Physical Review Letters.
