Mu
Mu
[Cueball spins in circles on a chair next to a desk. A graph of productivity vs Coefficient of friction of desk chair shows a curve that drops off very quickly as the coefficient of friction approaches zero, with the productivity becoming negative at low values. It plateaus in the middle of the graph, and then begins to drop less steeply as coefficient of friction increases above the optimal point.] Cueball: Wheeeeeeee

The title of the comic, "Mu", refers to the symbol μ. This letter of the Greek alphabet is commonly used in mathematics and physics in many cases and here it denotes the coefficient of friction which describes the ratio of the force of friction between two connected bodies.
Desk chairs usually have the ability to turn and some chairs spin more easily than others. A desk chair which spins easily could be described as having a low coefficient of friction. The horizontal axis of the chart ranges from very easy to spin on the left, to very difficult to spin on the right. The comic shows that if the chair is too difficult to turn it is annoying and impacts productivity. However, if it is too low spinning one's chair becomes more fun than working.
The title text notes that if your chair spins too easily, you can actually hurt other people's productivity by spinning competitively. [ citation needed ]
In classical mechanics the angular momentum can be transferred to other objects when a rotating object does not have any friction and is rotating very fast. For example, when a reaction wheel inside a spacecraft changes its speed, it turns the entire satellite around. None of this is intuitive, as shown in this video .
[Cueball spins in circles on a chair next to a desk. A graph of productivity vs Coefficient of friction of desk chair shows a curve that drops off very quickly as the coefficient of friction approaches zero, with the productivity becoming negative at low values. It plateaus in the middle of the graph, and then begins to drop less steeply as coefficient of friction increases above the optimal point.] Cueball: Wheeeeeeee
