  This manuscript is written for students in introductory physics classes to
address some of the common difficulties and misconceptions of the normal force,
especially the relationship between normal and friction forces. Accordingly, it
is intentionally informal and conversational in tone to teach students how to
build an intuition to complement mathematical formalism. This is accomplished
by beginning with common and everyday experience and then guiding students
toward two realizations: (i) That real objects are deformable even when
deformations are not easily visible, and (ii) that the relation between
friction and normal forces follows from the action-reaction principle. The
traditional formulae under static and kinetic conditions are then analyzed to
show that peculiarity of the normal-friction relationship follows readily from
observations and knowledge of physics principles.
