[calcbandit]

k, so I am involved in an arm wrestling competition. We lock fists and go at it.

We reach an entirely dead stand still (beat: I was arm wrestling a girl). I am trying my absolute hardest, and so is she, and we reach a stand still. There is a very little amount of back and forth action (maybe up to 5 degrees). After maybe 2 minutes of this, yes I am trying my hardest, the girl gives up.

We then went lefty, with the same result, although this time after 2 minutes I just declared "[censored] it, it's a tie."


So, the science question: how is this possible?

If my arm outputs 100.00 Newton's of force (I made this up), how is it possible that her arm just happens to be capable of the exact same force? If there was any difference in the forces, at any time in the 2 minutes, one of us would have won.

Clearly, to me, there is some "friction" in the system. What is your best guess as to how much force she would have to output to either win or lose against my 100.00N arm strength? 90? 99? How close are we in strength here?

And finally, where does this friction come from? What is it?