Chapter 3 Dynamics: Balanced Forces

CHAPTER 3 DYNAMICS
Newton's First Law of Motion
"Every object continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line unless acted
upon by an external unbalanced force."
Balanced forces
To better understand the concept of balanced forces, you will have to know the meaning of the
term resultant force. The topic is covered in this post here.
Now that you know about the term resultant force, we will come to balanced forces. When
the resultant force in a system is 0, we will say that the forces are balanced in the system. Look at the
following picture.
The toy car is initially at rest. A man pushes it in both the forward and the backward direction. The
car does not move. This is so because the two forces acting on the car are opposite in direction and of
the same magnitude, let’s say of 10N. As a result, they cancel each other out, and the car continues its
state of rest as stated in Newton's law.
Newton's first law also states that a body will continue its state of motion even when the resultant force
is zero. This is only possible, when the body is already in motion, and the overall forces in the system
become balanced. Look at the following picture
Even though the thrust force and the friction force cancel each other out, the car is moving at a constant
speed. This is so because the car was already moving at some speed, and when the forces became
balanced, the car continued on at that constant speed. Remember, whenever the forces are balanced,
the object will not accelerate or decelerate.
Unbalanced forces
In a system where the forces are unbalanced, the resultant force is never zero. As Newton's first
law states, if the body is at rest, and an unbalanced force is applied on it, it would start moving. Look at
the following picture. A man applies a force on a car in only one direction. As there is no other force from
the opposite direction to cancel the first force out, the car will be displaced. This is so because
the resultant force in the system is more than zero.
Why does the car stop after traveling some distance?
According to Newton's first law, the car should have continued moving once it was pushed. But Newton's
law also states there should be no outer forces acting on it. In the above example, some outer forces like
friction, air resistance etc. are acting on the car, which eventually cause the car to stop.
Newton's second law states that the acceleration of an object is directly related to the
net force and inversely related to its mass. Acceleration of an object depends on two
things, force and mass.
Newton’s second law of motion tells us that:

1)a resultant force F on an object produces an acceleration a;
2)doubling the resultant force F on an object doubles its acceleration a;
3)with the same resultant force F, doubling the mass m halves the acceleration on a.
Friction
Friction is a force that opposes motion. It is present
whenever two surfaces rub over each other, such as when you rub your hands together, or when
you apply the brakes on a bike or in a car. Friction also prevents an object from starting to move,
such as a shoe placed on a ramp. When friction acts between two surfaces that are moving over
each other, some kinetic energy is transformed into heat energy.
Friction can sometimes be useful. For example, we rely on the soles of our shoes to not slip over
the ground that we are walking on, and the friction between a car tire and the road surface helps
cars to speed up, slow down and turn corners. Sometimes though, friction can be a nuisance. For
example, the friction between a wheel and the axle that it rotates on wastes energy, so we try to
minimize the friction using bearings and lubricants.
Factors affecting friction
Braking distance
Braking distance is the distance covered by the car while the brakes are being applied. Don't know what
to write in this one. maybe if the breaking distance is more, than the friction is lesser compared to a
shorter braking distance?
Thinking distance
Thinking distance is the distance covered by the moving body, during which the driver decides
to apply the brake. It is also known as the reaction distance
Stopping distance
This distance includes the thinking distance as well as the braking distance.
Now, let us come to the factors that affect friction
Tire surface
If the surface of the tire is smooth, there would be less friction, as a rough surface always increases
friction. Usually old and worn out tires have smooth surface, which results in a longer distance covered
when applying the brakes. Furthermore, if there are treads or tracks on the tire surface, there would be
more friction.
Road Conditions
If the road is wet or slippery, there would be less friction. On the other hand, there would be more friction
on a dry road.
Whenever an object is in a circular motion, there is a force acting towards the center of the circle in which
it is moving. This force is called centripetal force. Look at the picture below.
The object is moving in a circle. As a result, there is a force acting from the ball towards the Centre of the
circle, which we call the centripetal force.
Centripetal force plays an important role in our universe. In an atom, we know that electrons move in
circles around the nucleus. They do so because of centripetal force. The nucleus has positive charge on
it, while the electrons have negative charge on them. As a result, the electrons are attracted towards the
nucleus, resulting in a centripetal force being evolved, which in turn causes the electrons to move in
a circular motion around the nucleus.
Natural satellites like moons also revolve around the planets due to the centripetal force. The moon is
attracted towards the planet due to the gravitational pull of the planet, and as a result starts moving in
a circular path around the planet.
Similarly, planets revolve around the sun, due to this same principle. The sun's gravitational field applies
a pulling force on the planets of the solar system, and as a result, they circle around it.

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CHAPTER 3 DYNAMICS

Newton's First Law of Motion

Why does the car stop after traveling some distance?

Newton’s second law of motion tells us that:

Factors affecting friction

Now, let us come to the factors that affect friction

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