Teachers TV: Reducing Friction: Skid Pan

This short clip explains the basics of friction using different materials. It is ideal for use as a lesson starter in KS2 science and is especially appropriate for Year 4. A car drives round a skin-pan, and the driving instructors explain how the road and the rubber create friction to keep the car on the road. The car then drives around a wet track, with a corresponding loss of friction. Friction is the grip between two surfaces, which tends to slow things down. If that friction is reduced when driving, the result is a skid. We visit a skid pan, where an expert driver steers a car along a wet track to demonstrate how the friction between a road tyre and a road can be reduced by a thin layer of water. The question posed at the end is: what other road conditions might cause a loss of friction between the tyres and the road?