why is a person with leather-soled shoes less likely to slip on a carpeted floor than on a smooth polished?

Question

floor? the carpet creates more friction or the polished floor creates more friction or there is greater action/reaction ratio between the shoes and polished floor or there is more mechanical dvantage between the carpet and shoes?

Answer 1

Friction.

Answer 2

Um. Okay. I'll explain. A person is less likely to slip and fall on carpet than on polished floors because of friction. The polish on the wood reduces friction, and, because the type of shoe you're talking about is smooth with no grip, there's less friction already.

To magnify the same effect, walk on your carpet in your socks. You don't slip and fall, right? That's because of the friction you create between your foot, sock and the carpet. Then, walk on polished wood or lineolium tile. You'll notice it's harder to walk, and it has ROUGHLY the same effect as if you were ice skating. There's less friction, therefore harder to walk, and therefore you slip and fall.

If you still don't understand, head over to wikipedia.org and look up 'Friction'. It should explain it.