Originally Posted by
Airburst
Wouldn't a certain amount of torque be transmitted by direct friction though? In the same way that once a bolt is tight, the torque required to start tightening it again is greater than the torque required to to actually tighten it once it starts moving, due to friction?
Go back to my example of the marble in a funnel. What keeps it from going farther once it reaches the too narrow area, is the support from the walls. The ball pushes out on the walls of the funnel, the funnel pushes back (Newton's third law) Granted it's angular, but it's the same as how a tripod works.
Granted there's probably a tiny amount of friction keeping the freewheel from rotating that last fractional bit and wedging itself tighter, but it's the wedge action that does the work.
BTW- there's always a bit of friction at work. When you stand you're supported by the floor pushing up against your feet. But if there weren't any friction, at the least imbalance your feet would shoot out from under you and you'd fall on your rear end. So when I say there's no friction involved, I mean that it's not a meaningful factor.