A physics major is cooking breakfast when he notices that the frictional force between

his steel spatula and his Teflon frying pan is only 0.200 N. Knowing the coefficient of

kinetic friction between the two materials, he quickly calculates the normal force.

What is it? 500 N

Let's list the given information. The frictional force, denoted as Ff, is equal to 0.200 N. We have to find the normal force, denoted as Fn. The relationship between Ff and Fn is written as:

Ff = μFn

where μ is the coefficient of friction

If there is no given data for μ, we can't solve this problem. Suppose μ = 0.5, then the normal force would be:

Fn = Ff/μ = 0.2/0.5 = 0.4 N