Newton’s

Laws of
Motion
(FORCE a
Recall)
Force and mass
Give me an example of
an action requiring
FORCE
Four Forces Known in the
Universe
 Electromagnetic- caused from electric
and magnetic interactions

 Strong Nuclear- Responsible for holding

nucleus together in the atom; strongest
force; acts over the shortest distance

 Gravitation- weakest force; acts over the

longest distance

 Weak Nuclear- Responsible for

radioactivity in atoms
Types of Forces

 There are two main types of

forces
Contact
Field
Contact Forces

 Contact Force
 Exists when an object from the external
world touches a system and exerts a force
on it
 Think About a Book on a Table
 If you push it, you are exerting a contact
force
 If you put it down, no longer interacting…
so no more force from you
 But table is touching it- table is now
exerting a force
Field Forces

 An object can move without something directly

touching it
 What if you dropped the book?
 It falls due to gravity
 Gravitational Force is a field force.
 They affect movement without being in
physical contact
 Can you think of other field forces?
 Magnetic fields
 Electric Forces
 Nuclear Forces
Two Types of Forces
Force and mass

 Mass – measurement of how difficult it is to change the

objects velocity
 Inertia – resistance to change in velocity

 So mass is a measurement of an object’s inertia

Assessment:

Give a real life example for each type of force.

1.Normal Force
2. Friction Force
3.Tension Force
4.Electric Force
5.Magnetic Force
Lesson 2: Newton’s
Law of Motion
FIRST LAW OF
MOTION
Newton’s Laws
Background
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
an English scientist and
mathematician famous for
his discovery of the law of
gravity also discovered the
three laws of motion.

Today these laws are known as

Newton’s Laws of Motion and
describe the motion of all objects
on the scale we experience in our
everyday lives.
Newton’s First Law

An object at rest tends to stay at rest and

an object in motion tends to stay in motion
unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Newton’s Laws of Motion

1. An object in motion tends to stay in   motion and

an object at rest tends to   stay at rest unless acted
upon by an   unbalanced force.
2. Force equals mass times acceleration
(F = ma).
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction.
Newton’s First Law is also called
the Law of Inertia

Inertia: the tendency of an object

to resist changes in its state of
motion

The First Law states that all objects have

inertia. The more mass an object has,
the more inertia it has (and the harder it
is to change its motion).
What does this mean?
Basically, an object will “keep doing
what it was doing” unless acted on
by an unbalanced force.

If the object was sitting still, it will

remain stationary. If it was moving
at a constant velocity, it will keep
moving.

It takes force to change the motion of

an object.
What is meant by
unbalanced force?

If the forces on an object are equal and opposite, they are said
to be balanced, and the object experiences no change in
motion. If they are not equal and opposite, then the forces are
unbalanced and the motion of the object changes.
EXPERIMENT TIME:

Cardboard, Paper and Coin Experiment

Experiment 2

Find some coins.

Stack 5 coins and
grab one more to
use as the shooter.
Flick one coin
toward the stack.
Give it a good,
solid flick.
 Why did the stack of coins did not
fall apart?

 The one coin will transfer its energy to the coin at

the bottom of the stack, which will then zoom
forward. The rest in the stack will stay right where
they were because an object at rest stays at rest
unless acted on by a force!
Some Examples from
Real Life
A soccer ball is sitting at rest. It
takes an unbalanced force of a kick
to change its motion.

Two teams are playing tug of war. They are both

exerting equal force on the rope in opposite
directions. This balanced force results in no
change of motion.
More Examples from
Real Life
A powerful locomotive begins to pull a
long line of boxcars that were sitting at
rest. Since the boxcars are so massive,
they have a great deal of inertia and it
takes a large force to change their
motion. Once they are moving, it takes
a large force to stop them.

On your way to school, a bug

flies into your windshield. Since
the bug is so small, it has very
little inertia and exerts a very
small force on your car (so small
that you don’t even feel it).
If objects in motion tend to stay in
motion, why don’t moving objects keep
moving forever?
Things don’t keep moving forever because
there’s almost always an unbalanced force
acting upon it.

A book sliding across a table slows

down and stops because of the force
of friction.

If you throw a ball upwards it will

eventually slow down and fall
because of the force of gravity.
 In outer space, away from gravity and any
sources of friction, a rocket ship launched
with a certain speed and direction would
keep going in that same direction and at that
same speed forever.
Question/Assessment

What is the relationship

between mass and
inertia?
Mass is a measure of how
much inertia something
has.
Question

Isinertia a force?
No, inertia is a property
of matter. Something
has inertia. Inertia does
not act on something.
Question

A force of gravity between the

sun and its planets holds the
planets in orbit around the sun.
If that force of gravity suddenly
disappeared, in what kind of
path would the planets move?
 Each planet would move in a
straight line at constant speed.
Question

 TheEarth moves about 30

km/s relative to the sun. But
when you jump upward in
front of a wall, the wall
doesn’t slam into you at 30
km/s. Why?
 bothyou and the wall are moving
at the same speed, before,
during, and after your jump.
Lesson 3: SECOND LAW OF
MOTION
Newton’s Second Law

Force equals mass times acceleration.

F = ma

Acceleration: a measurement of how quickly an

object is changing speed.
Acceleration

 An unbalanced force causes something to accelerate.

 A force can cause motion only if it is met with an
unbalanced force.
force
 Forces can be balanced or unbalanced.
 Depends on the net force acting on the object
 Net force (Fnet): The sum total and direction of all
forces acting on the object.

 Net forces: Always cause

acceleration.
Balanced Versus Unbalanced

Balanced forces cause no

acceleration.
Balanced Versus Unbalanced

Unbalanced forces
cause acceleration.
 What does F = ma mean?
Force is directly proportional to mass and acceleration.
Imagine a ball of a certain mass moving at a certain
acceleration. This ball has a certain force.

Now imagine we make the ball twice as big (double the

mass) but keep the acceleration constant. F = ma says
that this new ball has twice the force of the old ball.

Now imagine the original ball moving at twice the

original acceleration. F = ma says that the ball will
again have twice the force of the ball at the original
acceleration.
 In Other Words…
Small Force = Small Acceleration

F
a
In Other Words…
Large Force = Large Acceleration

F
a
So….if you push twice as hard, it accelerates twice as much.
But there is a twist….

 Acceleration is INVERSELY related to the mass of the object.

In other words…..using the
same amount of force….

F Small acceleration

Large Mass a

Large acceleration

F a
Small Mass
 More about F = ma
If you double the mass, you double the force. If you
double the acceleration, you double the force.

What if you double the mass and the acceleration?

(2m)(2a) = 4F

Doubling the mass and the acceleration quadruples

the force.
 What does F = ma say?

F = ma basically means that the force of an

object comes from its mass and its
acceleration.

Force is measured in
Newtons (N) = mass (kg) x acceleration (m/s2)
Or
kg m/s2
 High Mass

Something very massive (high mass)

that’s changing speed very slowly (low
acceleration), like a glacier, can still
have great force.
 Low Mass
Something very small (low mass) that’s
changing speed very quickly (high
acceleration), like a bullet, can still
have a great force. Something very
small changing speed very slowly will
have a very weak force.
 In Summary
 The acceleration of an object is directly
proportional to the net force & inversely
proportional to its mass.

 F = ma
 Force = Mass x Acceleration
How Does Weight Tie In?

 Mass is the quantity of matter in an object.

More specifically, mass is a measure of the
inertia, or “laziness,” that an object exhibits
in response to any effort made to start it,
stop it, or otherwise change its state of
motion.
 Weight is the force of gravity on an object.
 If force is equal to mass x acceleration then,
Weight is equal to mass x acceleration due to
gravity
Weight

 So on earth, your weight is

 Your Mass x 9.8 m/s/s
 When you are drawing FBDs and the force of
gravity factors in (almost always), you can
figure out the value of that force
 For example, if I say a 2kg book is resting on a
table…
 The force due to gravity (weight) is 2 x 9.8
 The normal force would be the same but
opposite direction
Solving Newton Second Law
Problems
 1.Draw a free body diagram
 2.Break vectors into components if needed
 3.Find the NET force by adding and
subtracting forces that are on the same axis
as the acceleration.
 4.Set net force equal to “ma” this is called
writing an EQUATION OF MOTION.
 NOTE: To avoid negative numbers, always
subtract the smaller forces from the larger
one. Be sure to remember which direction
is larger.
Example

 A 50 N applied force drags an 8.16 kg log to the right

across a horizontal surface. What is the acceleration of
the log if the force of friction is 40.0 N?
Tougher Example

 An elevator with a mass of 2000 kg rises with an

acceleration of 1.0 m/s/s. What is the tension in the
supporting cable?
Check your understanding
Net Forces and Newton’s Second Law
Question

 Suppose that the acceleration of an

object is zero. Does this mean that
there are no forces acting on it?
 No, it means the forces acting on it
are balanced and the net force is
zero.
 Think about gravity and normal
force acting on stationary objects.
Question

 When a basketball player dribbles a

ball, it falls to the floor and bounces
up. Is a force required to make it
bounce? Why? If a force is needed,
what is the agent.
 Yes, when it bounced it changed
direction. A change in direction =
acceleration. Acceleration requires a
force. The agent was the floor.
Equilibrium
Things that are in balance with one
another illustrate equilibrium.
Things in mechanical equilibrium are
stable, without changes of motion.
The rocks are in mechanical equilibrium.
An unbalanced external force would be
needed to change their resting state.
Mechanical Equilibrium
Mechanical equilibrium is a state wherein no physical
changes occur.
Whenever the net force on an object is zero, the object
is in mechanical equilibrium—this is known as the
equilibrium rule.
Mechanical Equilibrium

The  symbol stands for “the sum of.”

F stands for “forces.”
For a suspended object at rest, the forces acting
upward on the object must be balanced by other
forces acting downward.

The vector sum equals zero.

Mechanical Equilibrium
The sum of the upward vectors equals the sum of the
downward vectors. F = 0, and the scaffold is in equilibrium.
Mechanical Equilibrium
The sum of the upward vectors equals the sum of the
downward vectors. F = 0, and the scaffold is in equilibrium.
Mechanical Equilibrium
The sum of the upward vectors equals the sum of the
downward vectors. F = 0, and the scaffold is in equilibrium.
Equilibrium for stationary
objects
 To find the force necessary to
put something in equilibrium,
first find the resultant.
 The force necessary to put
something in equilibrium is
called the equilibrant force.
 The equilibrant force is equal
but opposite to the resultant.
Equilibrium for Moving Objects
The state of rest is only one form of equilibrium.
An object moving at constant speed in a straight-line path is
also in a state of equilibrium. Once in motion, if there is no net
force to change the state of motion, it is in equilibrium.
Equilibrium for Moving Objects
An object under the influence of only one force cannot
be in equilibrium.
Only when there is no force at all, or when two or more
forces combine to zero, can an object be in equilibrium.
Equilibrium for Moving Objects
When the push on the
desk is the same as the
force of friction between
the desk and the floor,
the net force is zero
and the desk slides at
an unchanging speed.
Equilibrium for Moving Objects
If the desk moves steadily at constant speed, without
change in its motion, it is in equilibrium.
Friction is a contact force between objects that slide
or tend to slide against each other.
In this case, F = 0 means that the force of friction is
equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to
the pushing force.
Newton’s Third Law

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

 What does this mean?
For every force acting on an object, there is an equal
force acting in the opposite direction. Right now,
gravity is pulling you down in your seat, but
Newton’s Third Law says your seat is pushing up
against you with equal force. This is why you are
not moving. There is a balanced force acting on
you– gravity pulling down, your seat pushing up.
 Think about it . . .
What happens if you are standing on a
skateboard or a slippery floor and push against
a wall? You slide in the opposite direction
(away from the wall), because you pushed on
the wall but the wall pushed back on you with
equal and opposite force.

Why does it hurt so much when you stub

your toe? When your toe exerts a force on a
rock, the rock exerts an equal force back on
your toe. The harder you hit your toe against
it, the more force the rock exerts back on
your toe (and the more your toe hurts).
Forces and Interactions
When you push on the wall, the wall pushes on you.
Newton’s Third Law
Newton’s third law describes the relationship
between two forces in an interaction.
• One force is called the action force.
• The other force is called the reaction force.
• Neither force exists without the other.
• They are equal in strength and opposite in
direction.
• They occur at the same time
(simultaneously).
Newton’s Third Law
When the girl jumps to shore, the boat moves backward.
Identifying Action and Reaction Pairs
When action is A exerts force on B, the reaction is simply B exerts force on A.
Action and Reaction on Different Masses
Earth is pulled up
by the boulder with
just as much force
as the boulder is
pulled down by
Earth.
Question

1. A force interaction requires at

least a(n)
a. single force.
b. pair of forces.
c. action force.
d. reaction force.
Question

3. The force that directly propels a

motor scooter along a highway is
that provided by the
a. engine.
b. fuel.
c. tires.
d. road.
Question

 We know that Earth pulls on the moon.

Does the moon also pull on Earth? If
so, which pull is stronger?
 Asking which pull is stronger is like
asking which distance is greater—
between New York and San Francisco,
or between San Francisco and New
York. The distances either way are the
same. It is the same with force pairs.
Both Earth and moon pull on each
other with equal and opposite forces.
Question

 Suppose a friend who hears about Newton’s

third law says that you can’t move a football
by kicking it because the reaction force by
the kicked ball would be equal and opposite
to your kicking force. The net force would be
zero, so no matter how hard you kick, the ball
won’t move! What do you say to your friend?
 If you kick a football, it will accelerate. No
other force has been applied to the ball. Tell
your friend that you can’t cancel a force on
the ball with a force on your foot.
Review
Newton’s First Law:
Objects in motion tend to stay in motion
and objects at rest tend to stay at rest
unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Newton’s Second Law:

Force equals mass times acceleration

(F = ma).

Newton’s Third Law:

For every action there is an equal and

opposite reaction.