Friction and damping

[AggrorJorn]

This morning I ahve been machetting my way through wikipedia to learn more about the different kind of frictions.

I know that LE has 2 types of friction: static and kinetic. But going over the commands in wiki from LE, I also see the term 'damping'. the program samples included for setting friction and damping result in the same outcome.

 

My question is: What is the difference between damping and friction?

[paramecij]

Friction is only applied when two bodies are colliding (box sliding on the ground). Where static friction is the "glue factor" when the object is standing still and kinetic specifies how much the body resists movement when moving (sliding). So friction only applies when a body is sliding or resting on another body. Damping is like friction but it always affects the body motion (in the air, on the ground..), so you can use it to simulate lift, air friction etc.. If you have a cube sliding down a slope then the results may seem the same, but if you first drop the cube on the slope from mid air, you will get much more different results. Also, you can dampen translational and rotational forces separably

[AggrorJorn]

Thanks for the good answer. +1