Newton’s Laws of

Motion

Part 2
Newton’s Laws of Motion
After going through this module, you are expected to:
• define inertial frames of reference,
• identify action-reaction pairs,
• draw free-body diagram,
• apply Newton’s 1st law to obtain quantitative and qualitative conclusions
about contact and noncontact forces acting on a body in equilibrium, and
• differentiate the properties of static friction and kinetic friction.
Newton’s Laws of Motion and Inertial Reference Frames
Lesson 1
Learning objectives:
1. define action-reaction pairs, and
2. apply Newton’s 1st law to obtain quantitative and qualitative conclusions
about contact and noncontact forces acting on a body in equilibrium.
 In our previous lessons we have determined the directions and quantities
of velocity of the objects with respect to its chosen reference point. Somehow,
you have a basic understanding on the concept of Relative motion.
 Sir Isaac Newton has significant contributions in the field of Physics as
he combined his idea with other scientists like Galileo, who have given us the
most unified picture of how the Universe work. Newton is the one who
formulated the three laws of motion and gravitation by which we can be able to
predict the movement of everything around us.
 Newton's first law states that a body at rest will remain at rest, and a
body in motion will remain in motion at a constant velocity in a straight line
unless acted upon by an external force. The external force in this law being a
force that does not originate from the body itself. Another way to define an
inertial frame of reference is a frame of reference in which Newton's first law
remains true.
 Newton’s Second law states that if a net external force acts on a body,
the body accelerates. The direction of acceleration is the same as the direction
of the net force. The mass of the body times the acceleration of the body equals
the net force vector.

ΣF = ma
 Newton’s third law states that when two bodies interacts, they exert
forces on each other that at each instant are equal in magnitude and opposite in
direction. These forces are called action-reaction forces. Each of these two
forces acts on only one of the two bodies; they never act on the same body.
Inertial Frame of Reference
At some point in your life, you've probably been on a form of public
transportation. It might have been a bus, metro, train, plane, or even something
else. From your point of view in the vehicle, these people are sitting or standing
still. However, to a bystander standing still outside the vehicle, you and your
fellow passengers are moving at a faster velocity.
 Inertia is the property of matter in which an object that is at rest wants to
remain at rest, and an object that is moving wants to remain moving in a straight
line unless another force acts upon it. Likewise, an inertial frame of reference is
a reference frame in which an object stays either at rest or at a constant velocity
unless another force acts upon it.

The following examples illustrate Newton’s law of motion:

Newton’s first law of motion:
Imagine you are standing still in a stationary train-then suddenly it moves
forward. Your body has inertia, and so a force is needed to change its velocity.
The train floor accelerates your feet but your body falls backward. As you hold
on to the handle, the force exerted by the train through the handle gives your
body forward velocity.
Newton’s second law of motion:
A 3.5-kg papaya is pushed across a table. If the acceleration of the
papaya is 2.2 m/s2 to the left, what is the net external force exerted on the
papaya?
Given: m = 3.5 kg
a = 2.2 m/s2 to the left
Fnet = ?
Solution:
Fnet = ma
=(3.5kg)(2.2m/s2)
Fnet = 7.7 kg . m/s2 or 7.7 N, to the left
Newton’s third law of motion:
It hurts when you slap a person-the amount of force you exert in slapping
a face is the same amount of the force the face exerts on the hand, so you feel
pain in your hand, too.
What I Have Learned
A. Consider the following situation. One of the forces in the mutual interaction
is described; describe the other force in the action-reaction force pair. Write
your answer in the blank.
1. Baseball pushes glove leftwards. The glove pushes the baseball
_______________.
2. Bowling ball pushes the pin ___________. Pin pushes bowling ball rightward.
3. Enclosed air particles push balloon wall outwards. Balloon wall pushes
enclose particles _______________.
Action at a Distant Forces and Types of Contact Forces
Lesson 2
Learning Objectives:
1. Draw free-body diagram, and
2. Differentiate the properties of static friction and kinetic friction.
 In our previous discussion, Newton’s Laws of Motion described how
force influences the motion of an object. It is known as a vector quantity because
it has magnitude and direction. To learn further about different types of forces,
let us check what you have learned from our previous lessons.
Activity no. 2.1: Answer what is ask…
1. What are the three Newton’s Laws of Motion?
a. ______________________________
b. ______________________________
c. ______________________________
Activity no. 2.2: Modeling Acceleration
Materials: Masking tape and ruler/ tape measure
Procedure:
1. Mark a starting point and place marks along a straight path at 10 cm, 40cm,
90 cm, 160 cm, and 250 cm from the start.
2. Clap a steady beat. On the first beat, the person walking the course should
be at the starting point. On the second beat, the walker should be on the first
mark, and so on.
3. Repeat step 2 while starting at the other end.
 Forces are much a part of our daily lives, the different kinds of forces and
how some forces could be measured. As well as, forces acting on a body affect
its state of motion whether it is at distant or contact forces.
Forces and Interactions
In everyday language, a force is a push or a pull. A better definition is that
a force is an interaction between two bodies or between a body and its
environment. That’s why we always refer to the force that one body exerts on a
second body. When you push on a car that is stuck in the snow, you exert a force
on the car; a steel cable exerts a force on the beam it is hoisting at a
construction site; and soon.
 When a force involves direct contact between two bodies, such as a push
or pull that you exert on an object with your hand, we call it a contact force. The
normal force is exerted on an object by any surface with which it is in contact.
The adjective normal means that the force always acts perpendicular to the
surface of contact, no matter what the angle of that surface. By contrast, the
friction force exerted on an object by a surface acts parallel to the surface, in the
direction that opposes sliding. The pulling force exerted by a stretched rope or
cord on an object to which it’s attached is called a tensionforce. When you tug
on your dog’s leash, the force that pulls onher collar is a tension force.
 In addition to contact forces, there are long-range forces that act even
when the bodies are separated by empty space. The force between two magnets
is an example of a long-range force, as is the force of gravity; the earth pulls a
dropped object toward it even though there is no direct contact between the
object and the earth. The gravitational force that the earth exerts on your body is
called your weight.
To describe a force vector, we need to describe the direction in which it
acts as well as its magnitude, the quantity that describes “how much” or “how
hard” the force pushes or pulls. The SI unit of the magnitude of force is the
newton, abbreviated N.
Drawing Free-Body Diagrams
Free-body diagrams are diagrams used to show the relative magnitude
and direction of all forces acting upon an object in a given situation. A free-body
diagram is a special example of a vector diagram. It is usually represented by an
arrow. The size of the arrow in a free-body diagram reflects the magnitude of the
force. The direction of the arrow shows the direction that the force is acting.
Each force arrow in the diagram is labeled to indicate the exact type of force. It is
generally customary in a free-body diagram to represent the object by a box and
to draw the force arrow from the center of the box outward in the direction that
the force is acting. An example of a free-body diagram is shown at the right
 The free-body diagram above depicts four forces acting upon the object.
Objects do not necessarily always have four forces acting upon them. There will
be cases in which the number of forces depicted by a free-body diagram will be
one, two, or three. There is no hard and fast rule about the number of forces that
must be drawn in a free-body diagram. The only rule for drawing free-body
diagrams is to depict all the forces that exist for that object in the given situation.
STEPS IN CONSTRUCTING FREE – BODY DIAGRAMS

1. Identify which forces are present.

2. Determine the direction in which each force is acting.
3. Draw a box and add arrows for each existing force in the appropriate
direction; label each force arrow according to its type.
Activity no. 2.3: “Who am I to you?”
1. The glue on a piece of tape can exert forces. Can these forces be a type of
simple friction? Explain, considering especially that tape can stick to vertical
walls and even to ceilings.

2. When you learn to drive, you discover that you need to let up slightly on the
brake pedal as you come to a stop or the car will stop with a jerk. Explain this
in terms of the relationship between static and kinetic friction.
3. When you push a piece of chalk across a chalkboard, it sometimes
screeches because it rapidly alternates between slipping and sticking to the
board. Describe this process in more detail, in particular, explaining how it is
related to the fact that kinetic friction is less than static friction. (The same
slip-grab process occurs when tires screech on pavement.)

4. A physics major is cooking breakfast when she notices that the frictional
force between her steel spatula and Teflon frying pan is only 0.200 N.
Knowing the coefficient of kinetic friction between the two materials, she
quickly calculates the normal force. What is it?
Activity no. 2.4: Free Body Diagram
A. Identify the forces acting upon an object at rest.
a. Hanging plants
b. Flower vase at the top of the cabinet
c. TV hanging on the wall
Action - Reaction Pairs
Lesson 3
Learning Objective:
1. Identify action-reaction pairs.
 Before we should learn further, let us check if you have mastered our
Lesson 2 by answering the following questions:
Activity no. 3.1: Write the correct answer on separate sheet.
1. Identify the following forces if it is “distant” or “contact” forces:
a. Gravitational force ___________________
b. Friction _________________
c. Electromagnetic force ______________
d. Electrostatic force ____________
e. Kinetic force ________________
 Good job Learners! You have answered the questions correctly. Now
maybe you are ready to learn more concepts of forces that two bodies exert on
each other. In this module, you are going to realize that these forces are equal in
magnitude but opposite in direction. These forces are acting on different bodies
so they do not cancel each other out.
Activity no. 3.2: Pull Each Other
Materials: 2 rubber bonds and ruler/ tape measure
Procedure:
1. Tie the two rubber bond together.
2. Each person should pull back the end of the rubber bond. Record the two
readings using a ruler or tape measure.
3. Pull harder and record the two readings.
4. Continue to pull on both rubber bond but let the rubber bond move toward
one person.
5. Try pull in each such a way that the two rubber bonds have different
readings.
 From everyday experiences, we know that a force is needed to change a
particular movement of the body and why the object stays at rest. Somehow, you
have developed a better understanding about the different concept of forces as it
was discussed in our previous topic.
Newton's Third Law
A force is a push or a pull that acts upon an object as a result of its
interaction with another object. Forces result from interactions! According to
Newton, whenever objects A and B interact with each other, they exert forces
upon each other. When you sit in your chair, your body exerts a downward force
on the chair and the chair exerts an upward force on your body. There are two
forces resulting from this interaction - a force on the chair and a force on your
body. These two forces are called action and reaction forces and are the subject
of Newton's third law of motion. Formally stated, Newton's third law states that:
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The statement means that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces
acting on the two interacting objects. The size of the forces on the first object
equals the size of the force on the second object. The direction of the force on
the first object is opposite to the direction of the force on the second object.
Forces always come in pairs - equal and opposite action-reaction force pairs.
Examples of Interaction Force Pairs
A variety of action-reaction force pairs are evident in nature. Consider the
propulsion of a fish through the water. A fish uses its fins to push water
backwards. But a push on the water will only serve to accelerate the water. Since
forces result from mutual interactions, the water must also be pushing the fish
forwards, propelling the fish through the water. The size of the force on the water
equals the size of the force on the fish; the direction of the force on the water
(backwards) is opposite the direction of the force on the fish (forwards). For
every action, there is an equal (in size) and opposite (in direction) reaction force.
Action-reaction force pairs make it possible for fish to swim.
Activity no. 3.3: Do You Know Where Am I Going Through?

1. Consider the following three examples. One of the forces in the mutual
interaction is described; describe the other force in the action-reaction force
pair.
2. Consider the interaction depicted below between foot A, ball B, and foot C.
The three objects interact simultaneously (at the same time). Identify the two
pairs of action-reaction forces. Use the notation "foot A", "foot C", and "ball
B" in your statements.
What I Have Learned
While driving down the road, a firefly strikes the windshield of a bus and
makes a quite obvious mess in front of the face of the driver. This is a clear case
of Newton's third law of motion. The firefly hit the bus and the bus hits the firefly.
Which of the two forces is greater: the force on the firefly or the force on the
bus?
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Activity no. 3: Try this! Let’s Rock and Roll!

Walking is something that we do every day without thinking about it. Very
simple daily activity and straight forward. Try to observe when you walk inside
your house. Put one foot in front of the other and you move. What forces have to
do with walking?Thus equal and opposite reaction applied?
Additional Activities
Activity no. 4: Newton’s Laws of Motion and
Inertial Reference Frames
Directions: Briefly discuss the problem below. In answering, explain the physics
of your proposed method. Be sure to include all of Newton’s Laws of Motion in
your answer.

A space station worker found herself floating free 100 meters from the
space station because her safety line became unhooked. Attached to her space
suit were her unhooked safety line, her tool belt and tools, and her oxygen tank.
How could she get back to the space station without calling someone for help?
Activity no. 5: Action at a distance forces and
types of contact forces
Directions: Briefly discuss the situation below in 2- 5 sentences only.

A car sits motionless on a hill. What forces are acting on the car? Are the
forces balanced or unbalanced?
Activity no. 6: Action –Reaction Pairs

Directions: Briefly discuss the situation below in 2- 5 sentences only.

1. You are travelling in a moving bus. You saw a bee hit by the windshield of the
bus. Which of the two exerts a greater force, the bus or the bee? Explain
your answer.
2. Study the picture. In which picture does the boy exerted a greater force?
Explain your answer