Key Ideas Summary: TOPIC 1 Newton's Laws of Motion

TOPIC 1 Newton’s laws of motion
Key ideas summary

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE Motion review
• Motion can be described in terms of distance, displacement, speed, velocity,
acceleration and time.
• Distance is a measure of the length of the path taken when an object changes
position.
• Displacement is a measure of the change in position of an object.
• Speed is a measure of the rate at which an object moves over a distance.
•
• Velocity is a measure of the rate of displacement, or the rate of changing
position.
• Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity.
• Displacement, velocity and acceleration are vector quantities.

• Instantaneous speed is the speed at a particular instant of time. Instantaneous
velocity is the velocity at a particular instant of time.
• The velocity (or speed) of an object at an instant is equal to the gradient of the
graph of position versus time (or distance versus time) for that instant.
• The acceleration of an object at an instant is equal to the gradient of the graph
of velocity versus time for that instant.
• The displacement of an object during a time interval is equal to the area under
the velocity–time graph representing the time interval.
• The change in velocity of an object during a time interval is equal to the area
under the acceleration–time graph representing the time interval.
• The motion of an object moving in a straight line can be described algebraically
using several formulae including:
© John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 1

Newton's laws of motion and their application
• Newton’s three laws of motion can be applied to explain, predict or analyse
situations in which one or
more forces act on an object or system of objects.
• Newton’s First Law of Motion states that every object continues in its state of
rest or uniform motion unless made to change by a non-zero net force.
• Newton’s Second Law of Motion can be expressed algebraically as:
or
• Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that whenever an object applies a force to a
second object, the second object applies an equal and opposite force to the first
Fon Aby B = −Fon Bby A

object:
• The forces acting on a moving vehicle include the force due to gravity, normal
force, driving force and resistive forces including air resistance and road friction.
The motion of the car depends on the net force acting on the vehicle.
• For a vehicle on a slope, analysis of forces acting on, and motion of, the vehicle
can be undertaken by resolving the forces into two components — one parallel to
the slope and one perpendicular to the slope.
• Momentum is the product of the mass of an object and its velocity. Momentum is
a vector quantity.
Projectile motion
• There are two forces acting on a projectile in flight: the force due to gravity
(gravitational force) acting downwards and air resistance acting in the opposite
direction to that of the motion. In modelling projectile motion, it is helpful to
ignore the air resistance.
• To analyse the motion of a projectile, the equations of motion with constant
acceleration can be applied to the horizontal and vertical components of the
motion separately.
• An object projected horizontally near Earth’s surface travels in a parabolic path if
air resistance is negligible.
Uniform circular motion

• The average speed and velocity of an object moving in a circle is quite different
from its instantaneous speed and velocity. The speed of an object moving at
constant speed in a circle of radius r is given by the equation where

T is the period of the circular motion.
• The acceleration of an object in uniform circular motion is always directed
towards the centre of the circle. It is called centripetal acceleration.
• The magnitude of the acceleration of an object in uniform circular motion can
be calculated using the equations or .

• The net force on an object in uniform circular motion is always towards the
centre of the circle.

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TOPIC 1 Newton’s laws of motion

Key ideas summary

• Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity.

• Displacement, velocity and acceleration are vector quantities.

© John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 1

Fon Aby B = −Fon Bby A

Uniform circular motion

constant speed in a circle of radius r is given by the equation where

be calculated using the equations or .

© John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 4

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