Additional keywords: force, Newton, Newton meter, squash, stretch, friction,

KS3 Science drag, air resistance, water resistance, gravity, stationary, speed, average speed,
Year 7 - Forces relative motion, acceleration, deceleration, constant speed, gradient

What is a force? Resultant forces Distance-time graphs

When two forces acting on an object are not equal in size,
A force can be a push or a pull. You cannot see a force but you
we say that they are unbalanced forces. The overall force
can see what it does. When a force is exerted on an object it A distance-time graph shows how the distance moved
acting on the object is called the resultant force. If the
can; from a starting point changes over time
forces are balanced, the resultant force is zero. In this
● Change the object’s speed, case;
● Change the movement of an object (speed it up or slow ● a stationary object starts to move in the
it down) direction of the resultant force
● Change the shape of the object. ● a moving object changes speed and/or direction
in the direction of the resultant force
The resultant force is the difference between the two
A Newton meter is used to measure forces:
force. They contain a spring The greater the resultant force, the greater the
connected to a metal hook. The spring change in the motion of the object. Whether a
stretches when a force is hung on the moving object speeds up, or slows down,
hook. The bigger the force applied, the depends on the direction of the resultant force:
longer the spring and the bigger the ● the object speeds up if the resultant
reading, which is measured in Newtons. force acts in the direction of movement
● the object slows down if the resultant
Forces can be contact forces, such force acts opposite to the direction of
As drag, friction and air resistance. movement
Or non-contact forces, such as
Video link
Magnetism, gravity and static.

Calculating speed Changing speeds

Speed is a measure of how fast something or somebody is You can find the average speed of an object if you know:
In a distance-time graph:
moving. ● the distance travelled
● distance travelled is plotted on the vertical (y)
A formula triangle is a quick way to calculate the speed, distance ● the time taken to travel that distance
axis
or time. You can calculate average speed using this equation:
● time taken is plotted on the horizontal (x) axis
For example: average speed = distance ÷ time
The gradient (slope) of the line is equal to the speed. This
D=S×T The change in the motion of an object depends upon:
means that the line is:
S=D÷T ● the size of the resultant force
● horizontal for a stationary object (because the
T=D÷S ● the direction of the resultant force
distance stays the same)
● a straight diagonal for an object moving at a
constant speed
An object speeds up, or accelerates, if the resultant force
The steeper the line, the greater the gradient and the
The unit used for speed depends on the units for distance and acts in the direction of movement
greater the speed.
time. For example: An object slows down, or decelerates, if the resultant
● Distance = m (metres); Time = s (seconds); Speed = m/s force acts opposite to the direction of movement.
 Additional keywords: weight, non-contact force, mass, gravitational field
KS3 Science Year 7 - Forces strength, field,

Investigating speed Mass and Weight Astronauts journey

You can investigate the acceleration of an object using a The mass of an object is the amount of matter or ‘stuff’ it
trolley on a ramp. contains. The more matter an object contains, the greater its
In class you may have investigated the effect of increasing
mass. In rocket flight, forces
force on the acceleration of a trolley (car).
In this case; become balanced and
The thing you are changing (the independent variable) is the Mass is measured in kilograms, kg. unbalanced all the time.
force acting on the trolley (using mass (grams). A rocket on the launch pad is
The thing you are measuring (the dependent variable) is the Don’t confuse mass and weight. Remember that weight is a balanced: The surface of the
time taken for the trolley to travel a set distance. force that acts upon a mass, and is measured in newtons, N. pad pushes the rocket up
The things you must keep the same (control variables) are; while gravity tries to pull it
● The trolley down.
An object's mass stays the same wherever it is. So a 5 kg mass
● The distance travelled on Earth has a 5 kg mass on the Moon. As the engines are ignited, the thrust from the
● The person using the stopwatch
rocket unbalances the forces, and the rocket
The results show The weight of an object is the gravitational force between the travels upward.
you that increasing object and the Earth. The weight of an object depends upon its When the rocket runs out of fuel, it slows down,
the force (or mass mass and the gravitational field strength. stops at the highest point of its flight, then falls
added) increases back to Earth
the acceleration of Video link Objects in space also
the object. react to forces. A
Analysing data - means, anomalies and outliers Gravity spacecraft moving
Gravity is a force that attracts objects towards each other. through the solar
Scientists use data as evidence of their results when testing Gravity only becomes noticeable when there is a really massive system is in constant
theories or hypotheses. object like a moon, planet or star. We are pulled down motion. The
In order to overcome errors when collecting data, it is good towards the ground because of gravity. spacecraft will travel
practise to repeat experiments at least 3 times. This is to avoid The gravitational force pulls in the direction towards the centre in a straight line if the
reporting a false result caused by human or equipment errors. of any object. So we are pulled towards the centre of the forces on it are
For example, a faulty thermometer, or a broken mass balance. Earth. balanced.
Other errors could be caused by someone reading the Gravitational field strength is given the symbol g. Do not
This happens only when the spacecraft is very
incorrect reading on a measuring device. confuse this with g for grams. You can use this equation to far from any large gravity source such as Earth
calculate the weight of an object: or the other planets and their moons.
To make our data more reliable we take repeat readings, If the spacecraft comes near a large body in
usually at least 3. This allows us to calculate a mean value. weight in N = mass in kg × gravitational field strength in space, the gravity of that body will unbalance
When calculating a mean value you must ignore any the forces and curve the path of the spacecraft.
N/kg
anomalies, or outliers. These are results which do not fit your
expected result. For example, below Trial 3 does not fit our This happens, in particular, when a satellite is sent by a
pattern and so we exclude it from calculating our mean; On Earth, g is about 10 N/kg. This means that a 2 kg object on rocket on a path that is parallel to Earth's surface. If