Forces - And Newtons laws of motion

Causes of Motion & the concept of force

Aristotle, (384 - 322), in an attempt to explain the causes of motion suggested that motion is
maintained by forces. Galileo Galilei about 2000 years later, through his thought experiment
while attending mass at a church service, realized the importance of distinguishing between
horizontal motion and vertical motion in a gravitational field. This was after he observed a
pendulum tending to return to its original position at each swing. He reasoned (in his mind) that
if the path of the pendulum was not curved, the ball would continue indefinitely looking for the
upward curve. Newton extended Galileos work and made it more scientific by framing three
rules (the Newtons 3 laws of motion) that govern the motion of objects. Although Newtons
laws of motion are very nearly correct under all common circumstances, they break down under
certain conditions: e.g as velocity approaches the speed of light.
In this section we introduce the concept of force. We discuss Newtons laws, which describe
the way a body responds to a net force. We discuss frictional forces and the way they can be
mathematically represented. We study several applications of Newtons laws.
In classical mechanics, Force is the cause of motion . Classical mechanics deals with systems
of size  1010 m (atomic dimensions) and velocity  3.0 x 108 m/s (the speed of light).
Note:
Force is a vector.
There are two kinds of forces:
Contact Forces - involve physical contact between objects. Examples: the force
involved in kicking a ball, pulling a wagon, compressing a spring, etc.
Field forces - dont involve physical contact between objects. Examples: the
gravitational force and the electromagnetic force.

Newtons First Law

Both Aristotle and Galileo realized that an understanding of forces and their interactions was
key to the understanding of motion. Here on Earth, if friction forces were absent, pushing an
object would cause it to move indefinitely This is the basis of Newtons first low of motion.
Newtons First Law States: an object continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight
line if there is no net external force between the object and the environment. In other words, an
object at rest stays at rest, an object in motion stays in motion with a constant velocity unless
made to change by the total force acting on it. Newtons first law of motion defines for us what
a force is, or rather what it does - a force is something that causes acceleration.
In mathematical form we can write:
~F = 0 ~a = 0.
1

(1)

This means if a body has a number of forces F1 , F2 , ...Fn , the sum of the forces F1 to Fn is equal
to zero. This can be calculated separately for all the horizontal and vertical forces. Effects
of the horizontally acting forces are completely independent of those for all vertically acting
forces.
The first step in solving problems involving forces and motion of objects, is to identify all
the forces acting on the object and then draw a force diagram (called the free body diagram)
showing all the forces. Since force is a vector quantity with both magnitude and direction, we
use arrows to represent this. For solid objects we generally draw a force as acting through a
single point e.g, weight is usually represented as acting through the center of gravity. For a
meter rule balanced at its midpoint, we would draw a free body diagram with an arrow pointing
up and another pointing down. We think of the weight as acting through the midpoint. Similar
definition can be said of the center of mass as the point at which all the objects mass maybe
considered to be concentrated.
Example: Consider a man pushing a wheelbarrow, draw a free body diagram. I will show this
on the black board!.
Note: one of the forces is the drag force (friction) that is due to the interactions of the
wheelbarrow with the environment.
Friction
Friction originates from forces between atoms and molecules when surfaces are in contact. For
example, friction occurs when a body moves on a rough surface or through a fluid medium
(water, air, etc.). There are two types of friction:
1. The Static force of friction ( fs ) is the force of friction between two objects when there
is no motion.
2. The Kinetic force of friction ( fk ) is the force of friction between two objects when there
is motion.
Consider a block on a rough surface. Apply an external force Fext to the block.
if Fext < fs(max) the block wont move
as Fext increases, fs will increase until it reaches its maximum value. When Fext = fs(max)
the block will start to move (this is called the point of slipping).
Once the block starts to move, the force of friction is given by fk .
Experimental facts about friction
1. fs s FN where s is the coefficient of static friction and FN is the magnitude of the
normal force. Equality holds when the object is on the point of slipping: fs(max) = s FN .
2. fk = k FN where k is the coefficient of kinetic friction and is approximately constant
for any given pair of materials.
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3. Values of s and k depend on the nature of the surfaces that are in contact. Usually
k < s . Examples: rubber on concrete s = 1.0, k = 0.8; waxed wood on wet snow
s = 0.14, k = 0.10.
4. The direction of the force of friction is opposite to the direction the object wants to move.
5. k and s are nearly independent of the area of contact between the two surfaces.
6. k is nearly independent of the velocity of the object under consideration.

Newtons Second Law

Having established a connection between force and acceleration, which is qualitative, Newton
went further to find a quantitative connection between the two. He reasoned that if ~F 6= 0 (i.e.
there is a net external force acting on an object). Newton determined a relationship between
F, m and a and found that (i) F a i.e as F increases by a factor x, so does acceleration, (ii)
a 1/m i.e. as the mass is increased by some factor, the acceleration produced decreases by
the same factor.

aF
a F/m or F ma
a 1/m
another way to express this is:
F = kma
where k is a constant
If we define the unit of newton in such a way that one unit of force accelerates a mass of one
kg at a rate of one meter per second per second, then the constant in the equation must have the
value of one, so that
F = ma
This is Newtons second law of motion. More generally is it expressed as:
~F = m~a

(2)

By SI units for our measurements of mass and acceleration, units of force are kg ms2 . The
SI unit of force is the Newton (N) defined as the force that produces an acceleration of 1 m/s2
when acting on a 1 kg mass. In the cgs system: 1 dyne = 1 g cm/s2 = 105 N. In the British
engineering system: 1 pound (lb) = 4.448 N.
Note:
~a is inversely proportional to m . This means that, for the same force, a smaller mass will
have a larger acceleration.
Newtons second law is a vector equation which contains three scalar equations (in three
dimensions): Fx = max , Fy = may , Fz = maz .
The first law is a special case of the second law.

Worked Example: An aeroplane lands with a velocity of 50 m/s, the reverse thrusts from the
engines are used to slow it to a velocity of 25 m/s in a distance of 240 m.If the mass of the
aeroplane is 3x104 kg, what is the size of the reverse thrust supplied by the engines? We will
do this on the black board!
Newtons second law of motion is useful in considering what we mean by the term force but
can do more.
The tendency of an object to resist any attempt to change its state of motion is called Inertia.
The definition of mass is very difficult. The common idea that mass is the measure of the
amount of matter in an object - is not false, but it is not the whole truth either. The satisfactory
definition of mass uses the idea of inertia. e.g Mass can be stated as the force required per unit
of acceleration produced and is a measure of inertia. Mass is a scalar quantity and has SI units
of kilograms (kg). Example: If a bowling ball and a golf ball are hit with a bat, the bowling
ball would be much harder to get moving since it has greater mass and thus greater inertia. We
often use the term weight even when we mean mass. An objects weight is a force acting on
it. We have already noted how Newton set up a theory of how masses attract each other- the
gravitational theory. All masses have a gravitational field around them. Field is the physics
term used to explain action at a distance. If another mass is brought into the field of one, it
experiences a force which pulls it towards the mass. The size of the force varies with strength
of the field. Also the size varies with the position of the mass in the field.
We define Weight (~w) as the force exerted on an object by a gravitational field. From Newtons
second law,
w = mg.

(3)

Note:
Weight is a vector with direction towards the earths center, or perpendicular to the earths
surface.
The weight of an object is different on the earth and on the moon since the strength of
the gravitational field is different (gearth 6= gmoon ).
The value of g varies with distance from the center of the earth (more on this in unit 4).
As a consequence:
Since the earth isnt a perfect sphere, the weight of an object varies slightly from
place to place on the earths surface.
The weight of an object varies slightly with altitude above the earths surface.
In comparison, mass is a scalar with a value independent of location. Notice however
that, in the approximation that g is constant, mass is proportional to the magnitude of the
weight and the two quantities can be used interchangeably. This is called the equivalence
principle.

Newtons Third Law

Idea: Forces in nature always exist in pairs. Newtons third law states: For every action, there
is an equal and opposite reaction. When two bodies interact:
~F2 on 1 = ~F1 on 2 .

(4)

Where ~F2 on 1 is the force exerted on body 1 by body 2 and ~F1 on 2 is the force exerted on body
2 by body 1.
For Example: When an object falls towards the earth, the earth exerts a force on it that causes
it to accelerate towards the earth. According to Newtons third law, the object exerts a force
on the earth as well, and the earth accelerates towards the object. Why dont we feel the earth
accelerate?
Solution:
2nd Law me ae = ~Fobj on earth
3rd Law ~Fobj on earth = - ~Fearth on obj - ~w
~ae = - 
~w/me 
mobj
g  g.
|~ae | =
me
Conclusion: the acceleration of the earth is too small to detect because the mass of the earth is
much larger than the mass of the object.
Applications of Newtons Laws
Assumptions:
- We treat objects as point particles (no rotational motion).
- We neglect masses of ropes and springs. One consequence of this assumption is that the
force exerted along a rope is the same at all points in the rope.
Note: In problems with several bodies, apply Newtons 2nd law to one body at a time.
Problem Solving Strategy
Draw a picture of the situation and a force diagram of all the forces for each body (a free
body diagram).
In the force diagram for each object, include only the forces acting on that object.
The force exerted by a rope is called the tension and usually denoted ~T .
The contact force exerted by a surface is called the normal force (FN ) and always
acts perpendicular to the surface.
Set up a coordinate system and apply Newtons second law:
Fx = max , Fy = may
If necessary, use the kinematic equations of motion to solve for the desired quantities.
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