Force and laws of motion

Introduction
• When we push or pull anybody we are said to exert force on the body
• Push or pull applied on a body does not exactly define the force in general.
We can define force as an influence causing a body at rest or moving with
constant velocity to undergo acceleration
Balanced and Unbalanced forces
• There are two types of forces namely balanced forces and unbalanced forces
(a) Balanced Forces
• If the resultant of all forces acting on a body is zero then the forces are
called balanced forces.
• Weight of the block is balanced by the reaction force from the table. The table
pushes up against the block.

So the weight of a block lying on a table is balanced by the reaction force from
the table top
(b) Unbalanced Forces
• If the resultant forces acting on a body is not zero the forces are
called unbalanced forces.
• Since two forces acting on the block are of different magnitude the block
would begin to move in the direction of the greater force.
• Unbalanced force acts in the direction the block moves.
• The overall force acting on an object is called the resultant force.
• The resultant force is the difference between the two forces F1 and F2, which is
120 - 60 = 60 N.
• If all the forces acting on a body result in an unbalanced force, then the
unbalanced force can accelerate the body.
Frictional force
• The force that opposes relative motion is called friction.
• It arises between the surfaces in contact.
Example: When we try to push a table and it does not move is because it is balanced
by the frictional force. So, to move the table we will have to apply force more than
frictional force.
Laws of motion
• Newton gave three laws of motion that describe the motion of bodies.
• These laws are known as Newton's Laws of motion.
• They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and its
motion due to those forces.
Newton's First Law of motion
“An object remains in a state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line
unless compelled to change that state by an external force.”
Inertia
• All objects resist a change in their state of motion.
• This tendency of objects whether they are at rest or moving with uniform
velocity is called inertia.
• Hence, the first law of motion is also known as the law of inertia.
• Greater the inertia of the body greater will be the force required to bring the
change in the state of rest or uniform motion of the body.
• Mass is the measure of the inertia of the body so heavier objects have more
inertia then lighter objects.
• For example, a ball of 2Kg has more inertia then a football and it takes more
effort to kick a 2Kg ball than it takes to kick a football.
Momentum
• All objects have mass. so if an object is moving, then it has momentum.
• The momentum, p of an object is defined as the product of its mass (m) and
velocity (v)
momentum (p)=mv
• Momentum has both direction and magnitude so it is a vector quantity.
• The SI unit of momentum is kilogram-meter per second (kg m s-1).
• Since the application of an unbalanced force brings a change in the
velocity of the object, it is therefore clear that a force also produces a
change of momentum.
Second Law of motion
“The rate of change of momentum of an object is proportional to the
applied unbalanced force & in the direction of force”

• Suppose an object of mass ‘m’ is moving along a straight line with an initial
velocity ‘u’. It is uniformly accelerated to velocity ‘v’ in time ‘t’ by the
application of a constant force ‘F’ throughout the time ‘t’
• The initial and final momentum of the object will be, p1 = mu and p2 =
mv respectively.
• Now change in momentum would be
 • Now force applied is proportional to rate of change of momentum. So,

• The quantity ‘K’ is a constant of proportionality and is taken equal to 1.

F = ma
• The unit of force iskgms-2 or Newton, which has the symbol N.
• The second law of motion gives us a method to measure the force acting on an
object as a product of its mass and acceleration.
Third Law of motion
“Whenever a body exerts a force on another body, the second body
exerts an equal and opposite force on the first body”

• So according to third law of motion to every action there is an equal and

opposite reaction. This tells us that all forces in nature acts in pairs.
• These two forces are always equal in magnitude but opposite in direction.
Law of conservation of momentum
“When two or more bodies acts upon each other their total momentum remains
constant provided no external forces are acting”
• Suppose, two objects A and B each of mass m1 and mass m2 are
moving initially with velocities u1 and u2, strike each other after
time ‘t’ and start moving with velocities v1 and v2 respectively.

We know that
Momentum = Mass x Velocity
Initial momentum of object A = m1u1
Initial momentum of object B = m2u2
Final momentum of object A = m1v1
Final momentum of object B = m2v2
Force on an object = Rate of change of its momentum
 Change in momentum
=
time taken
m1v1 - m1u1
Force by B on A = Rate of change of momentum of A =
t
m2v2 - m2u2
Force by A on B = Rate of change of momentum of B =
t
During collision:
Force applied by B on A = - (Force applied by A on B)
m1v1 - m1u1 m2v2 - m2u2
[ ] =-[ ]
t t
‘t’ gets cancelled both sides
[ m1v1 - m1u1] = - [ m2v2 - m2u2]
m1v1 - m1u1 = - m2v2 + m2u2
m1v1+ m2v2 = m1u1 + m2u2
Final momentum = Initial momentum

Application of conservation of momentum

Propelling of rocket:
• The chemicals inside the rocket burn and produce the high velocity blast of
hot gases & these gases get ejected downwards with a great velocity.
• To conserve the total momentum of gases, the rocket moves up with a large
velocity.
Flight of jet planes:
• In jet planes, a large volume of gases produced by combustion of fuel is
allowed to escape through a jet in backward direction.
• Due to the high velocity, the backward moving gases have a large
momentum.
• In order to conserve the momentum, the plane get a push in forward direction
and moves with the great speed.
Recoil of gun:
• When bullet is fired from a gun, it moves forward with huge velocity.
• To conserve the total momentum of bullet, the gun moves backward.
• Due to this, gun moves back giving a jerk to the shoulder of the gunman. This
is called recoil of gun.
• Here, gun moves back only by small amount due to its heavy mass.