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
A huge reduction in rolling resistance, mostly. The contact patch of a steel wheel on a steel rail is very small, and the two materials compress and conform to each other to a nearly negligible level. All of that equates to very little drag. It also explains why the wheels can lock up and slide easily under braking or hard acceleration.
Another example is riding a bicycle. It’s much easier to ride on a hard surface on a bike with hard, narrow tires, like a racing bike, as compared to a soft surface on a bike with wide, under inflated tires, like a mountain bike on a beach.
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