AS LEVEL PHYSICS NOTES Newton's Laws

28
Newton’s
1862_RG_MainHead
Laws of Motion
You did most of this at GCSE, but that doesn’t mean you can just skip over it now. You’ll be kicking yourself if you
forget this stuff in the exam — it’s easy marks...
Newton’s 1st Law Says That a Force is Needed to Change Velocity

1) Newton’s 1st law of motion states that the velocity of an object will not change unless a resultant force acts on it.
2) In plain English this means a body R
will stay still (‘at rest’) or move in a An apple sitting on a table won’t go anywhere
straight line at a constant speed, unless because the forces on it are balanced.
there’s a resultant force acting on it.
reaction (R) = weight (mg)
3) An example of constant velocity is (force of table (force of gravity
when an object reaches its terminal pushing apple up) pulling apple down,
velocity (see p.30). This occurs when mg see p.38)
the weight of a falling object is exactly
balanced by drag (e.g. air resistance). Since there is no resultant force,
there is no acceleration, and the object falls at a constant velocity.
4) If the forces aren’t balanced, the overall resultant force will make the body accelerate.
This could be a change in direction, or speed, or both. (See Newton’s 2nd law, below.)
Newton’s 2nd Law Says That Acceleration is Proportional to the Force

...which can be written as the well-known equation: The resultant force is the vector sum
of all the forces on an object.
resultant force (N) = mass (kg) × acceleration (ms–2) ∑F = ma ∑ is the symbol for ‘sum of ’, but you’ll
often see resultant force as just F.
Learn this — it crops up all over the place in Physics.
REMEMBER:
And learn what it means too:
1) The resultant force is the vector sum of all the forces.
1) It says that the more force you have acting on a 2) The force is always measured in newtons.
certain mass, the more acceleration you get. 3) The mass is always measured in kilograms and is a constant.
4) The acceleration is always in the same direction as
2) It says that for a given force, the more mass you
the resultant force and is measured in ms–2.
have, the less acceleration you get.
3) If you have no resultant force, then ∑F = 0. You can see from ∑F = ma that this
happens when a = 0. And as if by magic (or physics), this matches what was said
above in Newton’s 1st law — no resultant force means no acceleration.
4) There’s more on this most excellent law on p.33.
Galileo said: All Objects Fall at the Same Rate (if You Ignore Air Resistance)
You need to understand why this is true. Newton’s 2nd law explains it neatly — consider two balls dropped at the
same time — ball 1 being heavy, and ball 2 being light. Then use Newton’s 2nd law to find their acceleration.
mass = m1 mass = m2
resultant force = F1 resultant force = F2
acceleration = a1 W1 W2
acceleration = a2
By Newton’s Second Law: By Newton’s Second Law:
F1 = m1a1 F2 = m2a2
Ignoring air resistance, the only force acting on Ignoring air resistance, the only force acting on the
the ball is weight, given by W1 = m1g (where ball is weight, given by W2 = m2g (where
g = gravitational field strength = 9.81 Nkg–1). g = gravitational field strength = 9.81 Nkg–1).
So: F1 = m1a1 = W1 = m1g So: F2 = m2a2 = W2 = m2g
So: m1a1 = m1g, then m1 cancels out to give: a1 = g So: m2a2 = m2g, then m2 cancels out to give: a2 = g
...in other words, the acceleration is independent of the mass. It makes no difference whether the ball is
heavy or light. And I’ve kindly hammered home the point by showing you two almost identical examples.
Topic 2 — Mechanics
29
Newton’s
1862_RG_MainHead
Laws of Motion
Newton’s 3rd Law Says Each Force has an Equal, Opposite Reaction Force
There are a few different ways of stating Newton’s 3rd law, but the clearest way is:

If an object A exerts a FORCE on object B, then
object B exerts AN EQUAL BUT OPPOSITE FORCE on object A.
You’ll also hear the law as “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. But this confuses people who wrongly
think the forces are both applied to the same object. (If that were the case, you’d get a resultant force of zero and
nothing would ever move anywhere...)
The two forces actually represent the same interaction,
just seen from two different perspectives:
1) If you push against a wall, the wall will push back

against you, just as hard. As soon as you stop
pushing, so does the wall. Amazing...
This looks like Newton’s 3rd law...
2) If you pull a cart, whatever force you exert on the
rope, the rope exerts the exact opposite pull on you Gravity pulls
down on book
(unless the rope’s stretching).
3) When you go swimming, you push back against the
Table pushes
water with your arms and legs, and the water pushes But it’s NOT. upwards on book
you forwards with an equal-sized force.
...because both forces are acting on the book, and they’re
not of the same type. They are two separate interactions.
Newton’s 3rd law applies in all situations and to all The forces are equal and opposite, resulting in zero
types of force. But the pairs of forces are always acceleration, so this is showing Newton’s 1st law.
the same type, e.g. both gravitational or both
electrical, and they act along the same line.
Practice Questions
Q1 State Newton’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd laws of motion, and explain what they mean.
Q2 Explain how you can demonstrate Newton’s 1st law using Newton’s 2nd law.
Q3 What are the two equal and opposite forces acting between an orbiting satellite and the Earth?
Exam Questions
Q1 A boat is moving across a river. The engines provide a force of 500 N at right angles to the flow of the river and the
boat experiences a drag of 100 N in the opposite direction. The force on the boat due to the flow of the river is 300 N.
The mass of the boat is 250 kg.
a) Calculate the magnitude of the resultant force acting on the boat. [2 marks]
b) Calculate the magnitude of the acceleration of the boat. [1 mark]
Q2 John’s bike, which has a mass of m, breaks and he has to push it home. The bike has a constant acceleration a
and a frictional force F opposes the motion. What force is John using to push his bike?
A ma
B ma + F
C m(a – F)
D – F
ma [1 mark]
Q3 Michael and Tom are both keen on diving. They notice that they seem to take the same time to drop from the diving
board to the water. Use Newton’s second law to explain why this is the case. (Assume no air resistance.) [3 marks]
Newton’s three incredibly important laws of motion...

These laws may not really fill you with a huge amount of excitement (and I could hardly blame you if they don’t)... but
it was pretty fantastic at the time — suddenly people actually understood how forces work, and how they affect motion.
I mean arguably it was one of the most important scientific discoveries ever...
Topic 2 — Mechanics

AS LEVEL PHYSICS NOTES Newton's Laws

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

AS LEVEL PHYSICS NOTES Newton's Laws

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

AS LEVEL PHYSICS NOTES Newton's Laws

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

28

Newton’s 1st Law Says That a Force is Needed to Change Velocity

Newton’s 2nd Law Says That Acceleration is Proportional to the Force

1) If you push against a wall, the wall will push back

b) Calculate the magnitude of the acceleration of the boat. [1 mark]

Newton’s three incredibly important laws of motion...

You might also like