LAW OF MOTION

• Force – push or
pull; required to
change an object’s
motion.
• Vector – show
magnitude and
direction
• There are two main types of forces
• Contact
• Field
• 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
• 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
• Example of Contact • Examples of Field
Forces Forces
• Friction • Gravitational
• Tension • Electric
• Magnetic
• Applied
• Spring
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 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

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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
•What is the relationship between
mass and inertia?
Mass is a measure of how much
inertia something has.
•Is inertia a force?
No, inertia is a property of matter.
Something has inertia. Inertia does
not act on something.
• 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.
• The Earth 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?
both you and the wall are moving at the
same speed, before, during, and after your
jump.
Newton’s Second Law

Force equals mass times acceleration.

F = ma
Acceleration: a measurement of how quickly an
object is changing speed.
• An unbalanced force causes something to accelerate.
• A force can cause motion only if it is met with an unbalanced
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 forces cause no
acceleration.
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.
Small Force = Small Acceleration

F
a
Large Force = Large Acceleration

So….if you push twice as hard, it accelerates twice as much.

• 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
Something very massive (high mass)
that’s changing speed very slowly (low
acceleration), like a glacier, can still
have great force.
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.
• The acceleration of an object is directly
proportional to the net force & inversely
proportional to its mass.

• F = ma
• Force = Mass x Acceleration
• 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
 MASS WEIGHT
Indestructible Change based on where it is
Can never be zero Can go up and down.
Can be zero
Not related to gravity, A vector quantity and its
centrifugal force, etc… direction of pull is towards
the center of the planet
Commonly measured in Commonly measured in
kilograms and grams Newton’s
Weight (W) = Mass (M) x
gravitational acceleration
(g)

W = mg
• 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
Net Forces and Newton’s Second Law

CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING

• 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.
• 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.
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.
1. A force interaction requires at least a(n)
a. single force.
b. pair of forces.
c. action force.
d. reaction force.
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.
• 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.
• 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.
WORK and ENERGY
 WORK
Product of force and the amount of displacement
in the direction of that force.
Means by which energy is transferred from one
object or system to another.

W = work done on an object F = average force applied to an object d = displacement

 WORK
Units for work are units of force times units of
length (ft. lb or Nm)
International Units – Joule ( J ) is the unit of
measurement for work. (1J = 1Nm)
 WORK
Positive work is done by a force acting on an
object if the object is displaced in the same
direction as the force.
Negative work is done by a force acting on an
object when the object is displaced in the direction
opposite the force acting on it.
 WORK
To determine the amount of work done on an object we
need to know three things:
Average force exerted on the object
Direction of this force
Displacement of the object along the line of action of
the force during the time the force acts on the object.
 Is the person doing work?

When pushing a 1000 N car 10 m.

Yes, work is being done because there is a force

(1000 N) applied over a distance (10 m).
 Is the person doing work?

Lifting a rock off the ground.

Work is done against gravity when lifting the rock. A

force is applied over a distance, so yes, work is being
done.
 Is the person doing work?

Holding a book in your hands.

Technically, you're exerting a force to counteract gravity,

but since the book isn't moving (no displacement), no
work is being done in the scientific sense.
 Is the person doing work?

Pushing hard on a brick wall.

Work is not being done in this case. Even though a force

is being applied, since the wall doesn't move (no
displacement), there's no work done on the wall.
WORK (Example)
A mechanic applies a force of 1080N to push the car 218 m
to the nearest fuel station. Determine the work done on the
car.
Given: F = 1080N d = 218 m
Required: W = ?
Solution: W = Fd = 1080N(218m) = 235,440 Nm
or (rounded off to 3 significant gifures)
WORK
30
3.0m

Mathematically, work can be expressed by the following

equation:
WORK (Example)
A force of 50N on the block at the angle shown in the
diagram. The block moves a horizontal distance of
3.0m. How much work is done by the applied force?
Given:
30
Required: W 3.0m

Solution: W = Fdcos = 50N(3.0m)cos30 = 129.9 J

• For each situation below, calculate the amount of work
done by the applied force.
 Try This!
1. Suppose you want to calculate how much work it takes to lift a 160 N
barbell. Besides the mass of the barbell, what other information do you
need to know?
a. the shape of the weights
b. how high the barbell is being lifted
c. the strength of the person doing the lifting
d. None of the above
 Try This!
How much work is done when a 5 N force moves a block 4 m?

Fred applies 350 N of force to move his stalled car 40 m, how much work did Fred
do?

A crane does work of 13,500 J with a force of 5200 N to lift a beam. How far can
the beam be lifted (in meters)?
 Try This!

Which is more work, pushing with 115 N over 15 m or

lifting 25 kilogram box 10 m?
ENERGY
Energy is the capacity to do work
ENERGY
TWO Main Categories of ENERGY:
KINETIC ENERGY (energy of motion)
POTENTIAL ENERGY (stored capacity to do work)
Kinetic ENERGY
Moving object has the capacity to do work due to is
motion.
Mass and velocity of an object affect kinetic energy and
the capacity to do work.
KINETIC ENERGY is proportional to the square of
the velocity.
KE = Kinetic Energy m = mass v = velocity
Kinetic ENERGY
Units for KINETIC ENERGY are units of mass times
velocity squared, or kg(m2/s2) or [kg(m/s2)]m or Nm or J
Unit of measurement of KINETIC ENERGY is the
same as the unit of measurement for work.
Kinetic ENERGY (Example)

Determine the kinetic energy of a 625 kg roller coaster car

that is moving at a speed of 18.3 m/s.
Given: m=625 kg v = 18.3 m/s
Required: KE
Solution: KE = =
J
Potential ENERGY
Gravitational potential energy
Mechanical potential energy (compressed spring)
Chemical potential energy (stored in bonds)
Nuclear potential energy (in nuclear bonds)
Potential ENERGY
Related to the object’s weight and its elevation or height
above the ground or some reference point.

where: PE = gravitational potential energy

W = weight g = acceleration due to gravity
m = mass h = height
Potential ENERGY Example

A cart is loaded with a brick and pulled at a constant speed

along an inclined plane to the height of a seat-top. If the
mass of the loaded cart is 3.0 kg and the height of the seat-
top is 0.45 meters, then what is the potential energy of
the loaded cart the height of the seat-top?
Potential ENERGY Example

Given: m = 3.0kg h = 0.45 m g = 9.8 m/s/s

Required: PE
Solution: PE = mgh = 3.0kg(9.8m/s/s)(0.45m)
= 13.23 J

h
 POWER
Rate of doing WORK
In sports, excelling requires not just the ability to do a large
amount of work, but also the ability to do that work in a
short amount of time.
Power can be thought of as how quickly or slowly work is
done.
SI units for power are watts (W) 1W = 1J/s
 POWER
Formulas:

∆ ∆

where: P = power W = work done

t = time taken to do the work
V = velocity
 POWER Example

When doing a chin-up, a physics student lifts her 42.0 kg

body a distance of 0.25 meters in 2 seconds. What is the
power delivered by the student’s biceps?
Given: m = 42.0 kg d = 0.25 m t = 2.0 s
Required: P
Solution: P = Fd/t = (411.6N)(0.25m)/2.0s = 51.45 W
ELASTIC POTENTIAL ENERGY
The 2nd form of Potential Energy
Stored in elastic materials (as a result of stretching
and compressing)
The amount of elastic potential energy stored is
related to the amount of stretch of the device.
ELASTIC POTENTIAL ENERGY
SPRINGS are special instance of a device that can
store ELASTIC POTENTIAL ENERGY.
A FORCE is required to compress a SPRING.
The amount of FORCE is directly proportional to
the amount of stretch or compression (x); the
constant of proportionality is known as the spring
constant (k):
ELASTIC POTENTIAL ENERGY
If a SPRING is not stretched or compressed, then
there is no elastic potential energy stored in it.
(equilibrium position or the zero PE position).
There is a special equation for springs that relates the
amount of elastic potential energy to the amount of
stretch ( or compression) and the spring constant.

where: k = spring constant x = amount of compression (relative to the equilibrium position)

 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY
States that the total energy of an isolated system
remains constant
ENERGY can neither be CREATED nor
DESTROYED; rather, it transforms from one
form to another.
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY
Consider the situation:
As the train accelerates down the lift hill, potential energy
is converted into kinetic energy. When the train ascends
another hill, the kinetic energy is converted into potential
energy again. This is conservation of mechanical energy,
and it continues throughout the entire ride.
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY
The total mechanical energy of the train is shown
by the equation:

where E is the total mechanical energy, K is the

kinetic energy, and U is the potential energy.
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

From this equation:

or
where: is total initial mechanical energy
is total final mechanical energy
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

This shows that the total initial mechanical energy

equals the total final mechanical energy for the system.
After the initial input of energy to carry the train up
the hill, the roller coaster simply coasts through the rest
of the ride.
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

Example:
A person is sitting on a toboggan at the top of a 23.7m tall
hill. If the person and toboggan have a total mass of
37.3kg, determine how fast they will be going when they
reach the bottom of the hill. (Assume there is no friction)
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

Given: m = 37.3 h = 23.7 =0 =0

Required: v
Solution: 0 + mgh = 0.5mv2 + 0
v = 21.55 m/s
 THINK and TRY!
1. A man is trying to drop a 10kg boulder off a 10 meter
high cliff to hit the Roadrunner eating a bowl of
birdseed on the road below. At this particular location,
gravity is 10N/kg. He wants to know the speed of the
boulder at various points above the road:
a. ) 10 meter b.) 8.0 meter c.) 3.0 meter d.) 0 meter
 THINK and TRY!
2. A toy car with a mass of 112g is pushed by a student along a
track so that it is moving at 3.00 m/s. It hits a spring (k =
925 N/m) at the end of the track, causing it to compress.
a. Determine how far did the spring compress to bring the car
to stop.
b. If the spring only compressed 2.00 cm in bringing the car to
a stop, explain what happened.