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PHYSICS TERM 1 NOTES

Forces - Basics

 A force is defined as:

A push or a pull that acts on an object due to the interaction with another object

 Forces can affect bodies in a variety of ways:

o Changes in speed: forces can cause bodies to speed up or slow down
o Changes in direction: forces can cause bodies to change their direction of
travel
o Changes in shape: forces can cause bodies to stretch, compress, or deform

Different forces

The effects of different forces on objects

Resultant Forces on a Straight Line

 A resultant force is a single force that describes all of the forces operating on a body
 When many forces are applied to an object they can be combined (added) to produce
one final force which describes the combined action of all of the forces
 This single resultant force determines:
o The direction in which the object will move as a result of all of the forces
o The magnitude of the final force experienced by the object
 The resultant force is sometimes called the net force

 Forces can combine to produce

o Balanced forces
o Unbalanced forces

 Balanced forces mean that the forces have combined in such a way that they cancel
each other out and no resultant force acts on the body
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PHYSICS TERM 1 NOTES

o For example, the weight of a book on a desk is balanced by the normal force
of the desk
o As a result, no resultant force is experienced by the book, the book and the
table are equal and balanced

 Unbalanced forces mean that the forces have combined in such a way that they do not
cancel out completely and there is a resultant force on the object

 Resultant forces can be calculated by adding or subtracting all of the forces acting on
the object
o Forces working in opposite directions are subtracted from each other
o Forces working in the same direction are added together
 If the forces acting in opposite directions are equal in size, then there will be no
resultant force – the forces are said to be balanced

Newton's First Law of Motion

 Newton's first law of motion states:

Objects will remain at rest, or move with a constant velocity unless acted on by a resultant
force

 This means if the resultant force acting on an object is zero:

o The object will remain stationary if it was stationary before
o The object will continue to move at the same velocity if it was moving
 When the resultant force is not zero
o The speed of the object can change
o The direction of the object can change

 Newton's first law is used to explain why things move with

a constant (or uniform) velocity
o If the forces acting on an object are balanced, then the resultant force is zero
o The velocity (i.e. speed and direction) can only change if a resultant force acts
on the object

Newton's Second Law

 Newton's second law of motion states:
o The acceleration of an object is proportional to the resultant force acting on it
and inversely proportional to the object's mass

 Newton's second law explains the following important principles:

o An object will accelerate (change its velocity) in response to a resultant force
o The bigger this resultant force, the larger the acceleration
o For a given force, the greater the object's mass, the smaller the acceleration
experienced

Newton's second law can be expressed as an equation:

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PHYSICS TERM 1 NOTES

F = ma

Where:
F = resultant force on the object in Newtons (N)
m = mass of the object in kilograms (kg)
a = acceleration of the object in metres per second squared (m/s2)
The force and the acceleration act in the same direction

Hooke's Law

 Hooke’s law states that:

o The extension of a spring is proportional to the applied force
o F=kx

 Where:
o F is the force applied
o k is the spring constant
o x is the extension of the spring

 The spring constant is the force per unit extension

o The units are N/m
o The spring constant is a measure of how stiff the spring is

 Many other materials (such as metal wires) also obey Hooke’s law
 Hooke’s law is associated with the initial linear (straight) part of a force-extension
graph
 Objects that obey Hooke’s law will return to their original length after being
stretched
 If an object continues to be stretched it can be taken past the limit of proportionality
(sometimes called the elastic limit). At this point the object will no longer obey
Hooke’s law and will not return to its original length

 For a graph to be a Hooke’s law graph:

o The line must go through the origin.
o The extension of the spring must be proportional to the force applied to it.

Moments

 As well as causing objects to speed up, slow down, change direction and deform,
forces can also cause objects to rotate
 An example of a rotation caused by a force is on one side of a pivot (a fixed point that
the object can rotate around)
o This rotation can be clockwise or anticlockwise
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PHYSICS TERM 1 NOTES

 A moment is defined as:

The turning effect of a force about a pivot

 The size of a moment is defined by the equation:

M=F×d

 Where:
o M = moment in newton metres (Nm)
o F = force in newtons (N)
o d = perpendicular distance of the force to the pivot in metres (m)

The moment depends on the force and perpendicular distance to the pivot

 This is why, for example, the door handle is placed on the opposite side to the hinge
o This means for a given force, the perpendicular distance from the pivot (the
hinge) is larger
o This creates a larger moment (turning effect) to make it easier to open the door
 Opening a door with a handle close to the pivot would be much harder, and would
require a lot more force

 Some other examples involving moments include:

o Using a crowbar to prize open something
o Turning a tap on or off
o A wheelbarrow
o Scissors

Principle of Moments
 The principle of moments states that:

If an object is balanced, the total clockwise moment about a pivot equals the total
anticlockwise moment about that pivot

 Remember that the moment = force × distance from a pivot

 The forces should be perpendicular to the distance from the pivot
o For example, on a horizontal beam, the forces which will cause a moment are
those directed upwards or downwards

Equilibrium

 The term equilibrium means that an object keeps doing what it’s doing, without any
change
 Therefore:
o If the object is moving it will continue to move (in a straight line)
o If it is stationary it will remain stationary
o The object will also not start or stop turning
 The above conditions require two things:
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o The forces on the object must be balanced

 There must be no resultant force
o The sum of clockwise moments on the object must equal the sum of
anticlockwise moments
 there must be no resultant moment

Momentum
 An object with mass that is in motion has momentum which is defined by the
equation:
momentum = mass × velocity
p = mv
 Where:
o p = momentum in kilogram metre per second (kg m/s)
o m = mass in kilograms (kg)
o v = velocity in metres per second (m/s)
 This means that an object at rest (i.e v = 0) has no momentum
 Momentum keeps an object moving in the same direction, making it difficult to
change the direction of an object with a large momentum
 Since velocity is a vector this means that the momentum of an object also depends on
its direction of travel
 This means that momentum can be either positive or negative
o If an object travelling to the right has positive momentum, an object travelling
in the opposite direction (to the left) will have negative momentum

Conservation of Momentum
 The principle of conservation of momentum states that:
In a closed system, the total momentum before an event is equal to the total
momentum after the event
 A closed system means the energy within the system is constant and there is an
absence of external forces (e.g. friction)
 In other words:
The total momentum before a collision = The total momentum after a collision
 A system is a certain number of objects under consideration
o This can be just one object or multiple objects
 Since momentum is a vector quantity, a system of objects moving in opposite
directions (e.g. towards each other) at the same speed will have an overall momentum
of 0 since they will cancel out
o Momentum is always conserved over time

Impulse
 When a resultant (unbalanced) force acts on a mass, the momentum of that mass will
change
 The impulse of a force is equal to that force multiplied by the time for which it acts:
impulse = force × change in time
impulse = FΔt
 The change in momentum of a mass is equal to the impulse provided by the force:
impulse = change in momentum
impulse = FΔt = Δp
 Change in momentum can also be described as:
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Δp = Δ(mv)
Δp = mv − mu
 Where:
o m = mass in kg
o v = final velocity in m/s
o u = initial velocity in m/s
 Therefore:
impulse = FΔt = Δp = mv – mu
 Force can also be defined as the rate of change of momentum on a body
 The change in momentum is defined as the final momentum minus the initial
momentum