Why does putting a carriage on rails make it much easier to pull? As in, how were the first trams such an improvement from omnibuses when the same weight was still being pulled?
In: 520
Actual ELI5: Take a soccer ball, put it on a mattress and roll it along with your hand pushing down.
The effort you have to put in isn’t that much but it is a LOT more than if you set it on a hardwood floor and push the same.
Now imagine you used a wooden ball. (Don’t do it on a hardwood floor please).
The mattress would resist a bit more but the hardwood floor it would practically glide.
The principle is the same.
The ground “feels hard” but only to a foot or hand. To the wheel of a cart it might as well be the mattress. Whilst you can roll it along it still will buckle under it and will take more effort.
The steel rail behaves like the hardwood floor.
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