Force --- Newton's Laws of Motion
Newton's First Law of Motion
Newton's Second Law of Motion
Newton's Third Law of Motion
Newton's first law of motion
If there is a desk resting on the floor and we do not exert a force on it, the desk will stay there forevery. it is natural to think that an object at rest will remain at rest if there is no force acting on it. On the other hand if we push the desk, it will slide
along the floor. If we stope pusing it, it will stop almost immediately. This phenomenon has led to them misconception that a force must be applied to keep an object moving.
Galileo's argument
In the sixteenth century, Galileo (1564-1642) had a new concept of motion. he pointed out that a moving object slows down because there
is a force acting on it. This force is due to the friction between the object and the surface on which it is moving. If friction is reduced, the object would
move a long distance before coming to rest. If there is no friction at all, the object would move on forever.
The observations made by Galileo were summarized by Newton (1642 - 1727 ) as the Newton's first law of motion
An object remains in a state of rest or moves with uniform speed along a straight lin if there is no force acting on it
In other words, there is a tendency for a moving object to keep on moving , just as there is a tendency for an object at rest to mremain at rest.
If an object is at rest , its velocity is zero. If the object is moving with uniform speed along a straight line, its velocity is uniform. Newton's first law of motion expresses the reluctance of the object to change
its state of uniform motion. The object always tends to move with uniform velocity, including the case of zero velocity, i.e. at rest.
Inertia
The tendency of an object to maintain its state of uniform motion is called inertia. Inertia is possessed by any object with mass.
More precisely, mass is a measure of the inertia of the object. The greater the mass of an object, the more reluctant is the object to change its state of uniform motion. Many tricks that we have played are
based on this fact. When we pull one book quickly out form a pile of books, the books on the top will not go with book being pulled , but stay with the other books below . We can break a piece of thread tied to a
small mass by giving the order end a very sudden jerk. These two tricks illustrate that a stationary object tends to remain stationary.
A passenger tends to move backwards relative to the car when the car starts. He tends to move forward when the moving car stops. Sea belts and
head rests are used for sately puposes. A seat belt ties the passenger to the seat and prevents him from being thrown forrward when the car is stopped suddenly. This happends when the car collides with an
obstacle in front. A head rest protects the neck from being injured if the head is thrown backwards when the car is bumped from behind.
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Newton's second law of motion
We know that a force changes the state of uniform motion of an object.
Now we want to know quantitaively how it affects motion. in particular, how is force related to mass and acceleration?
There is an experiment in our page.
The experiment shows that a force is something which causes the acceleration of an object. For the same mass, twice the force produces twice the acceleration. For the same acceleration, twice the mass requires twice the force.
Such experimental results were generalized by Newton as the Newton's second law of motion:
The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to, and in the same direction as, the net force acting on it, and inversely proportional to its mass.
Note that force is a vector because it has both magnitude and
direction.
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Newton's third law of motion
There is an experment in our page.
The car and the cardboard move because of the friction between the wheels and the cardboard.
The free body diagram for the car is shown in Fig. 1.
The car accelerates to the right because there is a force F acting on
it. This force is exerted on the car by the cardboard.
The free body diagram for the cardboard is shown in Fig. 2. The
cardboard accelerates to the left
because there is a force F' acting on it. This force is exerted on the
cardboard by the wheels.
Obviously F and F' act in opposite directions. In addition, they act on
different objects. F and F; are called an action-reaction pair.
Action and reaction always occur in pairs. In general, if there is a
force F exerted by an object A on an object B, there must be a force F'
exerted by object B on object A.
The paired-forces exist no matter the two objects are stationary,
moving with uniform velocity or accelerating.
The reaction in an action-reaction pair must be distinguished from the
more general reaction
discussed under Newton's first and the second laws.
Consider a block at rest on the bench. From Newton's first law we know
that there must be a reaction R' for this force. R' is
exerted by the block on the bench. In the sense of action-reaction
pair, we may call R an action and R' the reaction.
We may as well call R' an action and R the reaction.
Action-reacton pairs must also be distinguished from balanced forces.
There is a weight W of the block It is the force exerted on the block
by the earth.
The block is at rest because the gravitational force W acting on it is
balanced by the rection R,
also acting on it. In other words, W and R are balanced forces acting
on the same object. In contrast, paired-forces act on different objects.
If a body A exerts a force on body B, then body B exerts an equal but
opposite force on body.
The result is stated as the Newton's third law of motion.
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Friction Force of Gravity Newton's Laws of Motion Suggested Experiments