Stopping

Stopping is the act of bringing something to a halt or preventing motion, activity, or progression. It can refer to physical cessation, such as a vehicle coming to rest, or to the termination of processes, habits, or conditions.

In physics and motion, stopping involves deceleration. The stopping distance is the distance required to come to rest after a decision to stop and consists of perception-reaction distance and braking distance. Stopping time is the elapsed time from the moment stopping becomes necessary to complete rest. Stopping distance increases with speed and mass, and decreases with higher friction and stronger braking. Weather, road conditions, and maintenance also affect it.

In transportation and safety, laws require stopping at red signals or stop signs, at pedestrian crossings, and in other designated zones. Proper stopping practices enable safer merging, yielding, and collision avoidance.

Other uses of stopping occur in linguistics, where stop consonants (plosives) are produced by a complete closure of the vocal tract followed by a sudden release. In medicine and daily life, stopping a medication or treatment may require tapering to avoid withdrawal or rebound symptoms. In computing and operations, a stop command or stop signal terminates a process, and stopping criteria guide decisions in experiments or tasks.