Revision Notes

Class – 9 Science
Chapter 9 - Force and Laws of Motion

● The motion of objects is based on their displacement, velocity, and

acceleration. Have you wondered why certain natural phenomena occur and
why they continue to occur in the same way? For example- why do the planets
move around the Sun and why does a ball thrown up come back falling down?
The answer to this question is force.
● Force and Motion

A force is applied to push the cart, a driver applies force either to stop the car
or bus or in order to change the speed or direction of motion, and a football
player kicks the ball in order to set it in motion.
In all the examples given above, the force is applied on a body that brings
about the following changes:

• Change in the state of rest of a body or change in its position.

• To changes the speed of the body.

• To change the direction of motion of a body.

● Force is defined as any external agent that changes the state of rest or uniform
motion of a body along a straight line.

● Resultant Force:

Any object can be moved by the application of force. Several forces can act
simultaneously on a single body. For instance, several people trying to move
a boulder whereas a strong person can move the same boulder all by himself.
In this case, the force applied by the strong man has the equal effect as that
produced by the net force applied by all persons. Therefore, the force applied
by the strong man is said to be the resultant force. The resultant force is “when
a force acting on a body produces the same effect as that produced by a
number of forces.”

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 Four people people can jointly move a boulder
F=F1 +F2 +F3 +F4

● Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

The above depicts a block of wood kept on the table. This block is pulled from
point A, it starts to move towards the left. When a block is pulled at the point
B it moves towards the right.

1. Example of Unbalanced Forces

If the block is pulled from both sides with the same force then the block
remains stationary (i.e at its position). The forces applied are unequal and
opposite to each other. The resultant of the forces acting on this block is now
not zero as block will shift.
2. Example of Balanced Forces

In tug of war games when both the teams start pulling the rope with equal and
opposite forces, then the rope remains in place as the forces acting on it are
equal and opposite and their resultant becomes zero.

3. Example of Balanced Forces

What do you observe when you squeeze a rubber ball between the palms of
your hands. The shape of the rubber ball changes due to the forces applied on
the ball are equal and opposite and the resultant of these forces does not lead
to its motion instead the object gets deformed and continues to be as long as
the force is applied. However, this is temporary deformation.

● Galileo's Observation and Origin of Newton Mechanics

Aristotle believed that the natural state of bodies is a state of rest. Galileo
opposed this belief. Galileo observed when a ball rolls down on an inclined
plane, its speed is increased. In the same way, when rolled up the inclined
plane, its speed decreased. He then rolled the ball on a horizontal plane.
Galileo repeated this experiment on a smooth surface. He noticed that the ball
continued to move. Galileo suggested that the speed of the ball moving on a
horizontal plane remains constant when no external force or force of friction

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 acts on it. Galileo noticed that it is the natural tendency of all bodies to oppose
any change in their state of rest or motion.

Force and Laws of Motion

● Inertia

Galileo's experiments showed that all objects have a tendency to continue in

their state of rest or of uniform motion unless an external force is applied to
it. The examples given below will help you understand the observations of
Galileo's experiment:

● Place a cardboard on an empty tumbler and keep a coin on the cardboard as

given in the figure.

Cardboard and a Coin placed on Tumblr

● Now, Flick the cardboard with your finger. What do you see? The coin kept
on the cardboard drops into the tumbler. On flicking the cardboard moves fast
whereas the coin continues in its state of rest and hence drops into the tumbler.

● A passenger standing in a moving bus leans forward when brakes are applied
suddenly. This is because the body of the person is in motion along with the
bus. When the bus stops all of a sudden, the lower part of the body comes to
rest with the bus but the upper part of the body remains in motion.

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 ● From the above examples, we see that the objects continue to remain in their
state of rest or of uniform motion until an external force is applied. The
tendency of an object to resist any change in its state of rest or of uniform
motion is known as inertia.

● Inertia is the property of the body by virtue of which it opposes any sort of
change in its state of rest or uniform motion along a straight line.

Inertia is classified into:

1. Inertia of rest- Some examples to it: A passenger standing in a bus

leans backwards when brakes are applied suddenly, fruits falling down
from the tree when it is shaken, dust particles on a carpet when it is
beaten with a stick.
2. Inertia of motion- Example to this is man alighting from a moving train
leans forward.

3. Inertia of direction- For example, water particles stuck to the cycle tyre
and fly off tangentially, when a drive takes a turn, the passenger feels
the force away from the centre of the curve.

The inertia of a body depends on the mass of the body. Heavy objects possess
more inertia than lighter ones.
● Newton gave the three basic laws of motion

1. First law of motion: The first law of motion states that "A body continues to
be either in a state of rest or of uniform motion along a straight line unless an
external force is applied on it." This tells that every object has a
tendency(inertia) to resist any change in its state of rest or motion This law is
therefore known as law of inertia. This law explained the qualitative definition
of force.

● Momentum: A cricket ball moving with a constant velocity v so is tennis ball.

We apply more force in order to stop the cricket ball than to stop the tennis
ball since the mass of the cricket ball is more than the tennis ball. The force
required in order to stop a moving object depends on the mass of the object.
The force required to stop a moving body is directly proportional to its
velocity.

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 Momentum: It is defined as the product of the mass and velocity of the object
or body. It is a vector quantity and direction of momentum will be the same
as that of velocity. It is represented by p.

p = mv here, m= mass of the object, v is velocity. SI unit=kg m/s.

2. Newton's Second Law of Motion

Newton's second law of motion tells that the rate of change of momentum is
directly proportional to the applied force and takes place in the same direction
as the applied force.

Explanation:
Consider a body of mass m , with initial velocity u . The body is applied by
force F for time t , and its final velocity is v .
Hence, Initial momentum  mu

and, Final momentum = mV

Therefore, Change in momentum in time t  m(v  u)

Change in momentum in unit time  m(v  u )

But since we know v  u  a (acceleration) t

Now, Change in momentum in unit time  ma Or

According to Newton's second law,

Rate of change of momentum F
F  K ma (Here, K  constant of proportionality)

If a body has unit mass and unit acceleration, then the force possessed by it is
also one unit.

F=ma
Force =- mass × acceleration [The negative sign is an indication of the gun
recoiling]

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 ● One Newton force is equal to a force that produces an acceleration of 1 m/s2
on an object of mass 1 kg. Force is also a vector quantity. Newton's second
law of motion stated the quantitative definition of force.

● Impulse:

The mathematical representation second law of motion is F = mv−mu/t,

Ft = mv - mu

When forces acting on a body for a short interval of time then it is defined as
an impulse.

SI unit of impulse = kg m/s.

When a person kicks a football, the kick lasts only for seconds. This force is
an example for impulsive force.
● Newton’s Third Law of Motion

Action and reaction forces are equal but act simultaneously on different
bodies. A rubber ball rebounds when back when it is thrown on a hard floor.
This is due to the action and reaction forces that are acting simultaneously.
The ball applies a force (action force) on the floor whereas the floor exerts an
equal and opposite force (reaction force) on the ball. The rubber ball being
light rebounds. Newton's third law of motion states that “To every action,
there is an equal and opposite reaction".
● Some day to day examples of newton's third law of motion:

1. While walking on the ground, our foot pushes the ground backward (action
force) whereas the ground in turn exerts a force on the foot (reaction force)
causing the foot move forward.

2. When a person jumps from a diving board he pushes the diving board (action
force) whereas the board, in turn, pushes the man forward in the opposite
direction (reaction force).

3. The birds in sky push the air with their wings (action force) whereas the air,
in turn, exerts a force on the bird in the upward direction (reaction force).

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 4. A swimmer pushes the water in the backward direction (action force) whereas
the water exerts a force on the swimmer (reaction force) which pushes him
forward.

The action and reaction forces are equal and opposite but their resultant is not
zero as the action and reaction forces are acts on two different bodies.
Newton's third law holds when the interacting bodies are at rest or in motion.
Newton's third law gives the relationship between interacting forces between
the two objects but does not give the magnitude of force.

● Law of Conservation of Momentum

According to Newton's third law of motion, action and reaction forces result
in a change in velocities of both the bodies which change the momentum of
these bodies as well.

● Applications of Law of Conservation of Momentum

1. The recoil of a Gun

When a bullet is fired from a gun, the gases produced in the barrel exert a lot
more of a force on the bullet (action force). As a result, the bullet moves
forward with a high velocity known as the muzzle velocity. The bullet exerts
an equal and opposite force on the gun(reaction force). The gun moves
backward. This backward motion of the gun is, the recoil of the gun. The
velocity with which the gun moves backward is the recoil velocity of the gun.
2. The motion of a rocket
A rocket is a projectile that carries the rocket fuel and oxidizer, which supplies
oxygen required for combustion. Liquid hydrogen is generally used in rocket
fuels whereas hydrogen peroxide, liquid oxygen are used as oxidizers. The
fuel-oxidizer combination in a rocket is known as the propellant.

A rocket consists of a combustion chamber in which either a solid or liquid

propellant is burnt. A nozzle is present at its tail through which the gaseous
products produced during combustion escape out. The rocket forces a jet of
hot gases downwards by the nozzle. This acts as action. The jet of gases exerts

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 a force on the rocket, pushing it (reaction). This force leads to forward
acceleration.

3. Rocket Propulsion

Just before the launch, the momentum of the rocket is zero. When the rocket
is fired, it forces a jet of hot gases with a very high velocity down the nozzle.
The jet of gases has momentum downwards. Therefore, the rocket has a
momentum of equal magnitude but in opposite direction. Therefore the rocket
goes upwards. In multi-stages propulsion takes place in rockets when the fuel
of the first stage gets used completely, the rocket casing gets detached and is
dropped off and the second stage is ignited.

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