Chapter 5: Physics

- What causes an object to remain at rest and another object to accelerate?

- Two main factors:
o Forces acting on the object
o Mass of the object
- The three basic laws of motion

5.1 THE CONCEPT OF FORCE

- force refers to an interaction with an object by means of muscular activity and some change in the
object’s velocity
o may or may not cause movement
o two types of force are contact forces and field forces
1. contact forces require physical contact
2. field forces act through empty space, no physical contact needed, an example is the
gravitational force of attraction
o there are four fundamental forces in nature:
1. Gravitational forces between objects
2. Electromagnetic forces between electric charges
3. Strong forces between subatomic particles
4. Weak forces that arise in certain radioactive decay processes

The Vector Nature of Force

- By deforming a spring, you can measure force

- If a vertical force is applied to a spring scale that has a fixed upper end
o The spring elongates when the force is applied, and a pointer on the scale reads the value of
the applied force
o We can calibrate the spring by defining a reference force F 1 as the force that produces a
pointer reading of 1 cm
o If we apply a direct downward force F2 whose magnitude is twice that of the reference force
F1, the pointer moves to 2 cm
o The combined effect of the two collinear forces is the sum of the effects of the individual
forces
o However, if both forces are applied at the same time, with F 1 going down, and F2 being
horizontal, you get the sum of the vectors F1 and F2
o to obtain the net force on an object, you must use the rules of vector addition

5.2 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW AND INERTIAL FRAMES

- a moving object can be observed from any number of reference frames

- Newton’s first law of motion is called the law of inertia and defines a special set of reference
frames called inertial frames
o If an object does not interact with other objects, it is possible to identify a reference
frame in which the object has 0 acceleration
- This reference frame is called inertial frame of reference
- Any reference frame that moves with constant velocity relative to an inertial frame is itself an
inertial frame
 - If you and the train accelerate you are observing the puck from a noninertial reference frame
because the train is accelerating relative to the inertial reference frame of the Earth’s suace
- There’s no friction to tie the puck and the train together, so a person outside the train sees the puck
has same velocity as the train had before it started to accelerate (constant velocity, so no
acceleration)
- A reference frame that moves with constant velocity relative to the distant stars is the best
approximation of an inertial frame, like the Earth
- Nature does not seek rest- it always wants to move
- A statement of Newton’s First Law
o In the absence of external forces and when viewed from an inertial reference frame,
an object at rest remains at rest and an object in motion continues in motion with a
constant velocity (a constant speed in a straight line).
- When no force acts on an object, the acceleration of the object is zero
- An isolated object is either at rest or moving with constant velocity
- The tendency of an object to resist any attempt to change its velocity is called inertia
- Force is that which causes a change in motion of an object

5.3 MASS

- Mass is that property of an object that specifies how much resistance an object exhibits to
changes in its velocity and its SI unit is kilogram
- Force, mass, and acceleration are related:
m1 a2
- = (EQUATION 5.1)
m2 a1
- the magnitude of the acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass when acted
on my a given force
- mass is a inherent property of an object, independent of surroundings and of the method used
to measure it, is a scalar quantity
- mass and weight are two different quantities, weight = magnitude of the gravitational force exerted
on the object

5.4 NEWTON’S SECOND LAW

- F ∝ ⃗a
the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it ⃗
- ⃗|∝ 1/m
the acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass: |a
- Newton’s Second Law:
o When viewed from an inertial reference frame, the acceleration of an object is directly
proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass

o a⃗ ∝
∑ ⃗F or ∑ ⃗F = ma⃗ (EQUATION 5.2)
m
o The acceleration is due to the net force ∑ F acting on an object
o The net force on an object is the bector sum of all foces acting on the object
o Because the earlier equation is a vector expression, it has three component equations
 ∑ F x=mx
 ∑ F y=my
 ∑ F z=mz
  Above is EQUATION 5.3
o the SI unit of force is the newton (N)
o a force of 1 N that acts on an object 1 kg produces an acceleration of 1 m/s 2
o 1 N= 1 kg ∙ m/s2 (EQUATION 5.4)
o In the US customary system, the unit of force is the pound (lb)
 A force of 1 lb is the force that when acting on a 1-slug mass, produces an
acceleration of 1 ft/s2
 1 lb= 1 slug ∙ ft/s2
o A approximation is 1 N= ¼ lb

5.5 THE GRAVITATIONAL FORCE AND WEIGHT

- all objects are attracted to Earth

- Fg
this attractive force exerted by the Earth on an object is called the gravitational force ⃗
- this force is directed toward the center of Earth and its magnitude is called the weight of an object
- applying Newton’s second law to a freely falling object of mass m, with a
⃗ =⃗g∧ ∑ F=⃗
F g gives:
- F g=m⃗g (EQUATION 5.6)
⃗
- The weight of an object being defined as the magnitude of F g is equal to mg
- The weight varies with geographic location because it depends on g
- The object does not need to be moving
- The role of mass m in 5.6 determines the strength of the gravitational attraction between the object
and the Earth, instead of measuring resistance to changes in motion in response to an external force
- The mass m in 5.6 is called gravitational mass

5.6 NEWTON’S THIRD LAW

- Newton’s Third Law:

o If two objects interact, the force F 12 exerted by object 1 on object 2 is equal in
⃗
F 21 exerted by object 2 on object 1:
magnitude and opposite in direction to the force ⃗
o ⃗ F 12=−⃗ F21 (EQUATION 5.7)
- F ab means “the force exerted by a on b”
The notation ⃗
- The force that a exerts on b is called the action force, and the force of b on a is called the reaction
force
- The action and reaction forces act on different objects and must be of the same type (gravitational,
electrical, etc.)
- The force acting on a freely falling projectile is the gravitational force exerted by the Earth on the
projectile Fg= FEp
- The reaction force to the gravitational force F g = FEm on the moniter is the force FmE = - FEm exerted by
the moniter on the Earth
- The monitor doesn’t accelerate b/c it is held up by the table
o Table exerts on the monitor an upward force n= Ftm, it is called the normal force
o The reaction force to this is Fmt= - n
- the important pictorial representation of forces is called a free- body diagram

5.7 SOME APPLICATIONS OF NEWTON’S LAWS

 - when Newton’s laws are applied to an object, we are interested only in external forces that act
on the object
- if the objects are particles, rotational motion is not a worry; friction isn’t either
o mass of ropes, strings, and cables is negligible mass
o the rope exerts a force T on the object in a direction away from the object, parallel to the
rope, magnitude of that is called tension in the rope

The Particle in Equilibrium

- if the acceleration of an object modeled as a particle is 0, the object is treated with the particle in
equilibrium model
- ∑ ⃗F =0 (EQUATION 5.8)
- If there are no forces in the x direction, net forces in the x direction = 0; the net forces in the y
direction= T- Fg = 0 or T= Fg
- The reaction force to T is T’, not Fg

The Particle Under a Net Force

- If an acceleration of an object is bigger than 0, its motion is analyzed with this model
- The equation is Newton’s Second Law
- Ax= T/m
- n= Fg
- normal force has the same magnitude as the gravitational force but acts in the opposite direction
- if T is constant, acceleration is also constant
- the crate is also modeled as a particle under constant acceleration in the x direction, and the equation
of kinematics (CH2) can be used to obtain the crate’s position x and velocity v x as functions of time
- when a force F pushes vertically downward on another object, the normal force n on the object is
greater than the gravitational force: n= Fg + F

5.8 FORCES OF FRICTION

- when an object is in motion, there is resistance to the motion because the object is interacting with
its surroundings
o this resistance is called force of friction
- the external horizontal force F is applied, the object will remain stationary when F is small
- the force that prevents the object from moving is the force of static friction fs
- when the object is not moving, fs = F, theres a direct relationship here
- when the object is on the verge of overcoming friction, fs has its maximum point
o when F is greater than fsmax, the object will move
- the force of motion is the force of kinetic friction fk
- net force F- fk gives a acceleration to the right
- if F= fk the acceleration is 0 and object moves at a constant speed
- if applied force F is removed from the object, fk acts to the left, giving the object an acceleration in the
–x direction
- fs and fk are proportional to the magnitude f normal force
- the magnitude of the force of static friction between any two surfaces in contact have the values:
o f s ≤ μ s n where μ is the coefficient of static friction and n is the magnitude of the normal
force exerted by one surface on the other
 o If the above equation is equal, the object is on the verge of slipping, or impending motion
- The magnitude of the force of kinetic friction acting between two surfaces is f k= μk n
o uk is the coefficient of kinetic friction, can vary with speed (but negligible change)
- The values of the coefficients depend on the nature of the surface, kinetic motion coef is less than
static motion
- Direction of the friction force is parallel to the surface and opposite to the actual motion or
impending motion of the object
- The coefficients of friction are independent of the surface area