In this article, we are going to discuss what is muscular force, is muscular force a contact force or a non-contact force, the reason, and some facts.
Muscular force is a force imposed on any object by using the muscles strength of the body. It is a contact force as it acts only when the two bodies are in physical contact with each other.
Contact Force
A force is called a contact force when the force applied on the body is in physical contact with the body applying force. Examples of the contact forces are, man lifting a weight, pushing a trolley, object flying in the air dragged by the air resistance, frictional force on the tyres of the car accelerating on the metallic road, etc. No field is linked with these kinds of forces and acts only when the object is in physical contact with another object on which the force is supposed to act.
Non-contact Force
A force is known to be a non-contact force when the force is applied to the object without being in physical contact with it. These types of forces are associated with a field, and the forces are exerted on another body when present in this field region. Examples are the attraction of the iron nail on the bar magnet, deflection of the magnetic needle in the compass on the influence of the magnetic field of the Earth, the motion of the charges in the electric field, raindrops falling on the ground, etc.
What is Muscular Force
The physical force applied to any object by using muscle strength is called the muscular force.
Some examples of the muscular forces are player kicking a football, riding a bicycle, playing badminton, weight lifting, walking, pulling a trolley bag, climbing stairs, doing pushups on the ground, running, etc.; all these are the physical activities that involves using some muscles of the body and hence, it is called muscular force.
Why Muscular Force is a Contact Force
The human or an animal can move and do the work because of the muscular force that is utilized for every activity.
The work is done using a muscle strength of a body that results due to the contraction of the muscles. The muscles contract to create a movement of a body to exert a force on the object. The force thus applied is a muscular force. The muscular force comes into context only when the physical body comes in contact with the object and applies a force on it, and hence the muscular force is a contact force.
How does Muscles Generate Force
For every activity to be performed, different muscular strength is required to get the activity done. For example, if you bought a stack of books from the library and then lift a single book from the bunch of books to read it. The force required to lift the bunch of books was much greater than the force to take out a single book from it. The heavier the mass, the greater is the force experienced, and hence more is muscular force applied.
Image credits: classroomclipart
Image credit: istockphoto
While applying a muscular force on the object, the muscle contracts causing the muscles to shorten, thereby building enough potential energy that generates the force. If the force experienced from the opposite direction is greater than the applied muscular force, then the muscles contraction will be more.
The muscle contraction is concentric or eccentric depending upon the arms or legs moment. The concentric contraction led to the shortening of the muscles and eccentric contraction causes the muscles to elongate.
On what factors does the muscular force depend
The muscular force can be controllable or uncontrollable depending upon the activity and the object on which the force is applied. The heavier the mass of the object, the greater is the muscular force required to be subjected on the object. Lighter the mass, very small muscular strength is utilized. Depending upon the mass of the object, and the object that needs to be displaced the force is applied to the object.
Muscular force is directly proportional to the muscular strength the body possesses. If a woman having a weight of 60kg can lift a weight of 20kg, the same weight is supposed to be lifted by the girl with a bodyweight 35kg, then she will have to put enough muscular strength to lift the weight; because the lady with 60kg has more muscular strength than the girl with 35kg; hence we can say that muscular strength is directly proportional to the mass.
The more the strength of the muscle, the more is the ability of a person or an animal to lift or move the object.
The force imposed on the object due to the movement of the arm results in the torque. Torque experienced on the object due to the muscular force is given as the product of the force and the arm moment and is formulated as
Where tau (t) is a torque experienced on the object due to arm movement
F is a force on the object
mA is a mass
The muscular force depends upon the muscular strength of the body. The greater the contraction of the muscle, the greater it will release the force required to accomplish the activity.
Read more on 15+ Contact Force Examples: Exhaustive Insights And Facts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a muscular force a frictional force?
A frictional force acts on the objects in motion that acts in a direction opposite to the direction of the motion of the object. Friction resists the motion of a body when it is in close contact with another body, hence it is a contact force.
The muscular force is also a contact force. The frictional force will come into consideration only when the muscular force applied will be ascertained to resist the motion of the object. Hence, a muscular force can be a frictional force too.
Why muscular force is not a non-contact force?
When a force is applied on the body without being in physical contact with the body is known as the non-contact force.
The muscular force is the force applied by the muscles when doing any work only by making close contact with the body. The force is applicable only when the body is in close physical contact with the object. It is not associated with any field that the disturbance created in the field will get the work done. Hence, muscular force is not a non-contact force, but it is a contact force.
What force is a muscular force?
A muscular force is a contact force that comes into action by utilizing muscle power.
The force applied on the object using muscle power is a muscular force. While riding a bicycle the muscular force is applied for peddling the wheels to keep the bicycle in momentum, and brakes are applied by pulling the brake pad and a bell is the rung is by using the hand muscular strength. The man pushing a box with load, the batsman hitting a ball, are also examples of a muscular force.
Also Read:
- Gravitational force
- Exert force example
- Boiling point and molecular forces
- Gravitational force formula 2
- How to find tension force with friction
- Is air resistance a force
- Non contact force examples
- Displacement and force
- How to find friction force without coefficient
- Muscular force examples
Hi, I’m Akshita Mapari. I have done M.Sc. in Physics. I have worked on projects like Numerical modeling of winds and waves during cyclone, Physics of toys and mechanized thrill machines in amusement park based on Classical Mechanics. I have pursued a course on Arduino and have accomplished some mini projects on Arduino UNO. I always like to explore new zones in the field of science. I personally believe that learning is more enthusiastic when learnt with creativity. Apart from this, I like to read, travel, strumming on guitar, identifying rocks and strata, photography and playing chess.
