Dynamics

Considering dynamics, which looks at the causes of motion.

4.1 The force concept

a force is something that can change the speed and direction of movement of a body
as well as changing the shape of a body. A force can act in any direction, which means that force
is a vector.
There are four basic forces in nature:
• gravity: purely attractive force, which can act over long distances
• electromagnetism: attractive and repulsive force, which acts on charged particles
• weak nuclear force: acts on the scale of the atomic nucleus
• strong nuclear force: stronger than the electromagnetic force on the scale of the atomic
nucleus – keeps protons and neutrons bound together in the nucleus.

Sometimes we want to resolve a force into components that are perpendicular to each other.
These components usually are aligned to the components of the frame of reference we use. The
components are usually horizontal and vertical vectors. We know from adding vectors together
that the combination of these two forces has the same effect.

It is only the horizontal component of the force that causes the load to move. (The vertical
component tends to lift the load upwards.)
This tells us that the man’s force would have more effect if he pulled horizontally; the steeper
the angle of the rope the less effective he will be, because the horizontal component will be
smaller.

You can work out the horizontal and vertical components of the force by resolving the force into
its horizontal and vertical components. If the force used is F, then
vertical component, Fy = F sin θ
horizontal component, Fx = F cos θ
Summary
In this section you have learnt that:
• A force can change the speed and direction of a body.
• Force is a vector.
• A force can be resolved into horizontal and vertical components.

4.2 Basic laws of dynamics

Newton’s three laws of motion are at the centre of this. They are:
• First law: a body will continue in its state of rest or uniform motion unless a force acts on it.
• Second law: when a force acts on a body, the body is accelerated by this force according to
the relationship F = ma where F is the force acting on the body, m is the mass of the body and a

is the acceleration of the body. The right-hand side of the equation F = ma is a vector multiplied
by a scalar, which you came across
Third law: when a body exerts a force on a second body, the second body exerts a force
which is equal in size but in the opposite direction to the force exerted by the first body.
Newton’s third law can also be expressed as: ‘for every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction’.
Friction
Friction is the force that stops us from slipping when we walk.
There are two types of friction: static friction and kinetic friction.
Static friction is the friction between two surfaces when there is no movement. For example,
when a car is not moving, the static friction between the tyres and road stops the car from sliding.

Imagine that you try to push a box along a table. With a small force, the box will not move. The
force you apply is equal to the frictional force – if it was not, the box would move.

As you increase the force, you will reach a point where the box will begin to move – the
frictional force reaches a maximum value. At this maximum value, the friction is said to be
limiting. If the box does not move and the friction is limiting, the box is in limiting
equilibrium.
When the frictional force is at the maximum, the box will either be moving or on the verge of
moving.
The coefficient of static friction is a number between 0 and 1, which represents the friction
between two surfaces. The maximum frictional force (in limiting equilibrium) is:
Fs= μsFN
where F s is the frictional force, μs is the coefficient of static friction and F N is the normal force
between the two objects
Kinetic friction is the friction between two surfaces when one of them is sliding over the other.
For example, when you push a box along the floor, there is kinetic friction between the box and
the floor when the box is moving.

The coefficient of kinetic friction is a number between 0 and 1, which represents the friction
between two surfaces. The frictional force is:

Fk=μkFN You should have found that static friction is greater than kinetic
friction.
Newton and gravity
Newton’s law of universal gravitation states that if two masses M1 and M2 are a distance apart r,
then the gravitational force between them is given by the equation:

where G is the universal gravitational constant.

Summary
4.3 Law of conservation of linear momentum and its applications
The greater the mass and velocity of an object, the greater its momentum.
Momentum is defined by the equation:

linear momentum = mass × velocity or p = mv The term linear is used to

distinguish it from angular momentum.

A body has angular momentum when it is spinning. The units of momentum are kg
m/s. As velocity is a vector and mass is a scalar, momentum is also a vector
because when you multiply a vector by a scalar, you get a vector. The linear
momentum of a body has the same direction as the velocity of the body.

If a resultant force acts on a body, it will cause that body’s

momentum to change. The momentum change occurs in the
direction of the force, at a rate proportional to the magnitude of that
force.
We can also express momentum as a vector. According to Newton’s second law, the direction of
the momentum will always be in the same direction as the velocity because mass always has a
positive value.In vector form: p = mv
We can also state Newton’s second law in terms of momentum. The net force can be expressed
in terms of change in momentum divided by time, or the rate of change of momentum.

Fnet = Δp/Δt
Law of conservation of linear momentum
When two masses push each other apart, you can use Newton’s third law of motion to predict the
movement of one mass when you know the velocity of the other mass.

• If two bodies collide or push each other apart and no forces act except for each one
pushing on the other, the total momentum of the two bodies does not change.
Looking at the worked example, at the start the total momentum of both bodies was zero. After
the bodies have moved apart the total momentum is p + –p = 0 So the total momentum of the two
bodies has not changed.

Now we will apply the law in two dimensions. The principle is: m 1u1 + m2u2 = m1v1 + m2v2
where u1, u2, v1 and v2 are vectors.
Impulse
an impulse is when you change the momentum of an object. As the mass does not change, it is
the velocity that changes when the momentum is changed. The equation is: impulse = mass ×
change in velocity or

I = mΔv. impulse is related to the force used to change the momentum and the length of time
the force was applied for. The equation is: I = FΔt

The units of impulse are newton seconds or N s, which are the same as momentum.
Summary
In this section you have learnt that:

• Linear momentum is mass multiplied by velocity and is a

vector.

• Total momentum of a system of bodies stays the same unless a force acts on them to change the
momentum.
• The law of conservation of momentum can be used to help explain gravity.

• Impulse is the change in momentum.

• Impulse and momentum have the same units.

• Increasing the length of time to change the momentum reduces the size of the force needed to
change the momentum.

4.4 Elastic and inelastic collisions in one and two dimensions

elastic collision a collision between two particles where kinetic energy is conserved

inelastic collision a collision between two particles where kinetic energy is not conserved

Consider two identical masses approaching each other. One has velocity v, the other has velocity
–v. Their combined momentum is mv + (–mv), which is zero. We know that after they collide
their total momentum will still be zero, but we cannot predict exactly what will happen without
further information.

If they were both balls of soft uncooked dough, they would merge together to form a single
stationary lump of mass. As v is now zero, the total momentum is zero, and momentum has been
conserved. This is an inelastic collision.
If they were two balls of hard spring steel, they would rebound off each other. The first ball
would now have a velocity of –v and the second one a velocity of +v. The total momentum is still
zero, so momentum has been conserved. This is an elastic collision. Molecules in a gas collide
like this.

In all collisions momentum is conserved. The difference between an elastic collision and an
inelastic collision is that kinetic energy is conserved in an elastic collision, but not in an inelastic
collision.
The kinetic energy is transferred into other forms of energy.
glancing collision a collision in two dimensions, where the objects rebound in the same plane
but not necessarily the same direction as the original motion

head-on collision a collision in one dimension, where the objects rebound on straight
line paths that coincide with the original direction of motion
After collusion
Summary
In this section you have learnt that:

• kinetic energy is conserved in an elastic collision but not in an inelastic collision.

• The total momentum of a system of bodies before a collision is the same as the total momentum
of the system after the collision.

• Problems involving collisions can be solved by considering the momentum before and after the
collision.

4.5 Centre of mass

centre of mass the point in a body from which the force of gravity on that body appears to be
acting
torque the turning effect of a force round a point
When you apply two forces to an object, as shown in Figure 4.26, the forces cause the body to
rotate. This turning effect of the forces is called a moment or torque. Think back to the
work you did on levers – you found that you could move a large mass using a lever if the
distance you applied the load was a long way from the pivot. The forces are not acting in the
same line. There are moments about the pivot

The moment of a force or torque is defined as the magnitude of the force multiplied by the
perpendicular distance from the point to the force of the line of action of the force. A moment, or
the torque, is also the vector product of the force and the distance from the point.
Torque has direction and so is also a vector.
Finding the centre of mass

We can use moments to find the position of the centre of mass in a system.
Summa
In this section you have learnt that:

• Torque is the turning effect of a force.

• The centre of mass is where the whole of the force of gravity on that body appears to be acting
from.

• The centre of mass can be outside an object.

• Objects are stable when the centre of a mass is above a point that is inside the base of the
object.

4.6 Momentum conservation in a variable mass system

A rocket uses Newton’s third law of motion to move. The upwards force on the rocket is
balanced by the downwards force from the gases going out through the rocket nozzle (Figure
4.37). However,

we cannot apply Newton’s second law of motion directly because the mass of the rocket is not
constant. The mass of the rocket decreases as more gases are pushed out of the nozzle of the
rocket. This also means that the rocket is losing some momentum as the gases leave
the rocket.

We can express Newton’s second law in this form: F + uΔm = ma

where F is the force on the rocket, u is the velocity of the exhaust gases relative to the centre of
mass of the rocket, is the mass of exhaust gases expelled at a point in time (or the rate of change
of mass of the rocket), m is the mass of the rocket and a is the acceleration (or the rate of change
in v, velocity of the rocket).

When the rate of change of mass is zero, this becomes Newton’s second law of motion

A raindrop is another example of a variable mass system. Droplets of condensed water vapour
combine until they start falling through the cloud as a raindrop. The raindrops then get bigger as
they combine with other droplets of water to form bigger raindrops.

As the mass of raindrop increases, the momentum of the raindrop increases.

The force acting on the raindrop at a certain time can be expressed as: F = rate of change of
momentum = ma + uΔm where F is the force on the raindrop, m is the mass of the raindrop, u is
the velocity of the extra mass that has been added to the raindrop and u is the velocity of the
extra mass.

We can also consider what happens in explosions.