Course: B.Sc.

Applied Physical Science(Computer Science)

Subject : Physics
Year : 1st (Semester - 1st)
Paper No. : 2
Paper Title : Mechanics
Lecture No. 2
Lecture Title : Mechanics -Newton'Second Law

Script

Hello friends in our last discussion we talked about the center of mass of a system of particles
and learnt that the center of mass of a system of particles is the point that moves as though all of
the system’s mass were concentrated there and all external forces were applied there. We dealt
with some of the sample problems as well. In today’s discussion we shall be talking about the
Newton’s Second Law for a System of Particles. Now that we know how to locate the center of
mass of a system of particles, we discuss how external forces can move a center of mass. Let us
start with a simple system of billiard balls.

If you roll a cue ball at a second billiard ball that is at rest, you expect that the two-ball system
will continue to have some forward motion after impact. You would be surprised, for example, if
both balls came back toward you or if both moved to the right or to the left.

What continues to move forward, its steady motion completely unaffected by the collision, is the
center of mass of the two-ball system. If you focus on this point — which is always halfway
between these bodies because they have identical masses — you can easily convince yourself by
trial at a billiard table that this is so. No matter whether the collision is glancing, head-on, or
somewhere in between, the center of mass continues to move forward, as if the collision had
never occurred. Let us look into this center-of-mass motion in more detail.

Center of mass in motion

To understand the center of mass in motion, we replace the pair of billiard balls with an
assemblage of n particles of (possibly) different masses. We are interested not in the individual
motions of these particles but only in the motion of the center of mass of the assemblage.
Although the center of mass is just a point, it moves like a particle whose mass is equal to the
total mass of the system; we can assign a position, a velocity, and an acceleration to it. We state
(and shall prove next) that the vector equation that governs the motion of the center of mass of
such a system of particles is;

𝑭!"# = 𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 … … … 𝑬𝒒. 𝑨

This equation is Newton’s second law for the motion of the center of mass of a system of
particles. Note that its form is the same as the form of the equation for the motion of a single
particle. However, the three quantities that appear in Equation must be evaluated with some care:

1.  𝑭!"# is the net force of all external forces that act on the system. Forces on one part of the
system from another part of the system i.e. internal forces are not included in this Equation.

2. M is the total mass of the system. We assume that no mass enters or leaves the system as it
moves, so that M remains constant. The system is said to be closed.

3. 𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎  is the acceleration of the center of mass of the system. This Equation gives no
information about the acceleration of any other point of the system.

The Equation is equivalent to three equations involving the components of 𝑭!"# and  𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 and
along the three coordinate axes. These equations are

𝑭!"#,      ! = 𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎  𝒙

𝑭!"#,      ! = 𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎  𝒚

𝑭!"#,      ! = 𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎  𝒛
Now we can go back and examine the behavior of the billiard balls. Once the cue ball has begun
to roll, no net external force acts on the (two-ball) system.

Thus, because  𝑭!"# = 0, Eq. “A” tells us that  𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 = 0 also. Because acceleration is the rate
of change of velocity, we conclude that the velocity of the center of mass of the system of two
balls does not change. When the two balls collide, the forces that come into play are internal
forces, on one ball from the other. Such forces do not contribute to the net force, which remains
zero. Thus, the center of mass of the system, which was moving forward before the collision,
must continue to move forward after the collision, with the same speed and in the same direction.

Motion of the center of mass of Solid Body

Equation “A” applies not only to a system of particles but also to a solid body, such as the bat as
shown here.
 𝑭!"# = 𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 … … … 𝑬𝒒. 𝑨

M in Eq. “A”, in this case is the mass of the bat and 𝑭!"# is the gravitational force on the bat.
The Equation then tells us that 𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 =  g
In other words, the center of mass of the bat moves as if the bat were a single particle of mass M,
with force 𝑭!"# acting on it.
Motion of the center of mass of Fragments

Figure here shows another interesting case. Suppose that at a fireworks display, a rocket is
launched on a parabolic path. At a certain point, it explodes into fragments. If the explosion had
not occurred, the rocket would have continued along the trajectory. The forces of the explosion
are internal to the system i.e.at first the system is just the rocket, and later it is its fragments; that
is, they are forces on parts of the system from other parts.

If we ignore air drag, the net external force  𝑭𝑛𝑒𝑡 acting on the system is the gravitational force
on the system, regardless of whether the rocket explodes. Thus, from Eq. “A”, the
acceleration  𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 of the center of mass of the fragments (while they are in flight) remains
equal to g.

This means that the center of mass of the fragments follows the same parabolic trajectory that the
rocket would have followed had it not exploded.

Proof of vector equation governing the motion of the center of mass

When we define the center of mass with the language of vectors, the three scalar equations
identified by three coordinates can be replaced by a single vector equation, as shown here:
!
1
𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒎 = 𝑚 ! 𝒓𝒊
𝑀
!!!
Here M is the total mass of the system and  𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒎 is the vector locating the position of the
system’s center of mass.

Now for a system of n particles,

𝑀𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒎 = 𝑚! 𝒓𝟏 + 𝑚! 𝒓𝟐 + 𝑚! 𝒓𝟑 + ⋯ … … . . +𝑚! 𝒓𝒏
Where M is the system’s total mass and  𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒎 is the vector locating the position of the system’s
center of mass.

Differentiating the Equation with respect to time gives

𝑀𝒗𝒄𝒐𝒎 = 𝑚! 𝒗𝟏 + 𝑚! 𝒗𝟐 + 𝑚! 𝒗𝟑 + ⋯ … … . . +𝑚! 𝒗𝒏

Here  𝒗𝒊 is the velocity of the 𝑖th particle, and  𝒗𝒄𝒐𝒎 is the velocity of the center of mass.

Differentiating this Equation with respect to time gives

𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 = 𝑚! 𝒂𝟏 + 𝑚! 𝒂𝟐 + 𝑚! 𝒂𝟑 + ⋯ … … . . +𝑚! 𝒂𝒏

Here  𝒂𝒊 is the acceleration of the 𝑖th particle, and  𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 is the acceleration of the center of
mass. Although the center of mass is just a geometrical point, it has a position, a velocity, and
acceleration, as if it were a particle.

From Newton’s second law,  𝑚! 𝒂! is equal to the resultant force  𝑭! that acts on the  𝑖th particle.
Thus, we can rewrite the above Eq. as

𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 = 𝑭𝟏 + 𝑭𝟐 + 𝑭𝟑 + ⋯ … … . . +𝑭𝒏
Among the forces that contribute to the right side of Eq. will be forces that the particles of the
system exert on each other and forces exerted on the particles from outside the system. By
Newton’s third law, the internal forces form third-law force pairs and cancel out in the sum that
appears on the right side of Eq. What remains is the vector sum of all the external forces that act
on the system.

This Equation then reduces to Eq. “A”, the relation that we set out to prove.

𝑭!"# = 𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 … … … 𝑬𝒒. 𝑨

Linear Momentum
In this section, we discuss only a single particle instead of a system of particles, in order to
define two important quantities. The first definition concerns a familiar word —momentum —
that has several meanings in everyday language but only a single precise meaning in physics and
engineering. The linear momentum of a particle is a vector quantity that is defined as

𝒑 = 𝑚  𝒗

Where m is the mass of the particle and v is its velocity.

Since m is always a positive scalar quantity, Eq. tells us that  𝒑  𝒂𝒏𝒅  𝒗  have the same direction.
The SI unit for momentum is the kilogram-meter per second.

Newton expressed his second law of motion in terms of momentum:

The time rate of change of the momentum of a particle is equal to the net force acting on the
particle and is in the direction of that force.

We can represent this in equation form as

𝑑𝒑
𝑭!"# =
𝑑𝑡
In words, we say that the net external force on a particle changes the particle’s linear momentum.
Conversely, the linear momentum can be changed only by a net external force. If there is no net
external force, linear momentum  𝒑 cannot change.

Substituting value of 𝒑 = 𝑚  𝒗 into this equation for constant mass m we get

𝑑𝒑 𝑑 𝑑𝒗
𝑭!"# = = 𝑚  𝒗 = 𝑚 = 𝑚  𝒂
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
Thus, the relations

𝑑𝒑
𝑭!"# =
𝑑𝑡
and

𝑭!"# = 𝑚  𝒂
are equivalent expressions of Newton’s second law of motion for a particle.
The Linear Momentum of a System of Particles
In this section we extend the definition of linear momentum to a system of particles. Consider a
system of n particles, each with its own mass, velocity, and linear momentum. The particles may
interact with each other, and external forces may act on them. The system as a whole has a total
linear momentum which is defined to be the vector sum of the individual particles’ linear
momentum. Thus,

𝑷 = 𝒑! + 𝒑! + 𝒑! + ⋯ … … + 𝒑!

= 𝒎! 𝒗! + 𝒎! 𝒗! + 𝒎! 𝒗! + ⋯ … … + 𝒎! 𝒗!
And another way we can define this linear momentum of a system of particles is through this
equation:

𝑷 = 𝑀𝒗!"#
In words we can say that

The linear momentum of a system of particles is equal to the product of the total mass M of the
system and the velocity of the center of mass.

Now if we take time derivative of this Equation, we find

𝑑𝑷 𝑑𝒗!"#
=𝑀
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
!"
And we know !" is acceleration, therefore,

𝑑𝑷
= 𝑀𝑎!"#
𝑑𝑡
Now compare this equation with the equation of Newton’s second law for the motion of the
center of mass of a system of particles.

𝑭!"# = 𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎
Comparing these equations we find that

𝑑𝑷
𝑭!"# =
𝑑𝑡
Here  𝑭𝑛𝑒𝑡 is the net external force acting on the system. This equation is the generalization of
the single-particle equation to a system of many particles. In words, the equation says that the net
external force on a system of particles changes the linear momentum of the system. Conversely,
the linear momentum can be changed only by a net external force. If there is no net external
force, linear momentum cannot change.

So friends here we come to the end of our discussion and therefore we sum up:

In this lecture we learnt that the motion of the center of mass is governed by Newton’s second
law for a system of particles, which is

𝑭!"# = 𝑀𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎

Here  𝑭!"# is the net force of all the external forces acting on the system, M is the total mass of
the system, and  𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒎 is the acceleration of the system’s center of mass.

For a single particle, we define a quantity  𝒑 called its linear momentum as

𝒑 = 𝑚  𝒗
and can write Newton’s second law in terms of this momentum as

𝑑𝒑
𝑭!"# =
𝑑𝑡
For a system of particles these relations become

𝑷 = 𝑀𝒗!"#

And
𝑑𝑷
𝑭!"# =
𝑑𝑡

So that is it for today. In the next lecture we shall be discussing about collision and impulse and
Conservation of Linear Momentum. Thank you very much.