Hello!!! This has always confused me since I was a kid.
How exactly do modern cars, or older steam locomotives, move when they have multiple tons of metal sitting on top of them? Like how does all of that mass sit on an axel and the axel is still able to rotate at high speeds? I’ve seen train axels/wheels in person and it’s basically a large metal rod with a wheel on each end. Does the force of the engine overcome the friction of all of that weight?
Thank you in advance!
For anyone else who is curious about this in the future, several of the comments below were super helpful. I was also able to find this video on YouTube as a visual demonstration based on the leads these guys provided!
https://youtu.be/lIEHscqWJAk
In: 6
It’s the magic of bearings. What you don’t see from outside is that all that weight rests on rollers, it’s not just an axle and wheels, there are roller bearings holding all that weight. Rolling resistance is small, provided you can get it moving to begin with pushing a train cart around takes very little power. Here are passengers pushing an entire train https://www.railtech.com/all/2022/05/19/ukrainian-passengers-push-6-train-cars-after-losing-electrical-contact/?gdpr=accept
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