What Are Ball Bearings Used For?

Sometimes the most useful devices in physics and engineering are the simplest ones. Ball bearings show how metal rings can be extremely versatile. As you can see in so many common items such as vehicles, bicycles, skateboards and other machines that involve moving metallic parts, humans have used the power of ball bearings for centuries.

Imagine sliding across a soft carpet while wearing shoes. It can be difficult because of the friction between the carpet and your shoes, which could be made of anything including leather, plastic, wood or rubber. If you instead wore socks, it'd be much easier because of much less friction between the soft carpet and the materials of the socks. Ball bearings work the same way.

Ball bearings decrease the amount of friction between loads put upon them. They do this because they are metal balls or rollers that move around a smooth metal surface in an inner loop and an outer loop (sometimes referred to as rings). You can learn about the many ball bearing applications through their physics. Ball bearings carry types of load in a radial direction, and these loads apply a perpendicular force to the axis of rotation of the ball bearing.

Article Courtesy of Sciencing.com