A woman wearing high-heeled shoes stands on a wooden floor. Her total weight is 480N and acts equally on each foot.
Why are marks left on the wooden floor by the woman's shoe heels but not her shoe soles?
her heels are tipped with black rubber?
The marks left on the wooden floor by the woman's shoe heels but not her shoe soles can be explained by the pressure exerted by the shoes on the floor.
When a person stands, their weight is exerted downwards, and in this case, the woman's total weight is 480N. Since the weight is acting equally on each foot, the weight on each foot can be calculated as 480N/2 = 240N.
When the woman wears high-heeled shoes, the weight is concentrated on a smaller surface area, namely the area of the heel. The pressure on the floor is determined by dividing the force (weight) by the surface area over which the force is acting. Since the area of contact between the heel and the floor is smaller than the area of contact between the shoe soles and the floor, the pressure exerted by the shoe heels is higher.
Higher pressure on the wooden floor leads to indentation, and the heel is more likely to leave marks on the surface compared to the shoe soles. The larger contact area of the shoe soles spreads out the pressure, reducing the likelihood of leaving visible marks on the wooden floor.
So, in summary, the marks left on the wooden floor by the woman's shoe heels but not her shoe soles are due to the higher pressure exerted by the smaller contact area of the heels compared to the larger contact area of the soles.