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
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Axels can spin easily despite all the weight on them because they use bearings. If you’ve played with a fidget spinner then you’ve played with a bearing before. They allow the axle to rotate without any rubbing so the friction is extremely low. The way the bearings work is by having little steel balls sit between the axle and the rest of the car. These balls will roll around as the axle spins, always keeping the axle from rubbing against anything. This allows the car to roll fairly easily despite how heavy it is.
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