Question

Sprinkling of powder on the carrom board__________friction.

Answer 1

Hint: When a powdery substance is sprinkled on a rough surface having microscopic imperfections, the molecules of the powder fill the gaps in that surface which makes the sliding on the surface smoother.

Complete Step-by-Step solution:
Friction is a force which comes into play when two bodies slide over each other. When the bodies come in contact, they interact with each other on a microscopic level. If there are any imperfections on the surface of two bodies then then it requires more force to move across those imperfections. This additional force is the frictional force.
In the game of carrom board, we have a wooden board whose surface may have a lot of imperfections on a microscopic scale. Striker is used to slide on the surface of the board to move various counters. Now if there are a lot of imperfections on the surface, then the motion of the striker will be slow because of the large amount of friction. This is an undesirable situation.
The solution for this problem is to sprinkle some powder on the surface of the board. A powder has a smooth texture because of microscopic grains. When it is sprinkled on the surface, those grains cover the various imperfections present on the surface of the smooth. As a result, the surface gets smoothed out and imperfections are reduced to a great extent. The result of smoothening is that friction between the striker and the board decreases and striker slides smoothly on the surface, not losing its momentum too quickly.
Hence, we can say that sprinkling of powder on the carrom board reduces friction and makes sliding smoother and easier.

Note: Friction is an undesirable effect in case of carrom board and sprinkling powder helps in reducing it but powder should be of smooth consistency like a talcum powder. Smaller the grain size, better are the results.