Phone Books

Phone books are extremely thick, but one would hardly think that two phone interleaved phone books could be extremely difficult to pull apart. The idea came to me while I was doing the physics review sheet because of its massive size. Though it is extremely difficult to measure the amount of Fs-max of two interleaved phone books. For starters normal force on each page is proportional to the number of pages above it. But you wouldn't want to do that because not every page puts its full weight on the page below it, and when you pull on the books, the pages compress and there is a force of pressure created holding the pages together. Even a miniscule amount of friction force on each page, multiplied by each page and each side causes massive friction. This friction is so great, that the pages will rip appart before the pages come appart. Its a little like a Chinese finger trap, when you pull, the force of friction increases due to more pressure on each page, but when you push together the pages come appart b/c the force of pressure is outwards not inwards. I really want to try this, but I didnt have 2 phone books or 3 hours to interleave them.

Thanks for reading,
Mark.