Laws of Motion

- Made by BIJITA DUTTA

(Faculty – GS: Mahendra’s)
• Isaac Newton was born in
Woolsthorpe, England in 1642, the
year Galileo died. In 1684,
encouraged by his friend Edmund
Halley, Newton embarked on writing
what was to be one of the greatest
scientific works ever published : The
Principia Mathematica. In it, he
enunciated the three laws of motion
and the universal law of gravitation,
which explained all the three Kepler’s
laws of planetary motion. The book
was packed with a host of path-
breaking achievements : basic
principles of fluid mechanics,
mathematics of wave motion,
calculation of masses of the earth,
the sun and other planets,
explanation of the precession of
equinoxes, theory of tides, etc.
 First Law of Motion
• Every body continues to be in its state of rest
or of uniform motion in a straight line unless
compelled by some external force to act
otherwise.
• It means, If the net external force on a body is
zero, its acceleration is zero. Acceleration can
be non zero only if there is a net external force
on the body.
• The first law gives us the definition of force and
the concept of Inertia.
• Forces are known to have different kinds of
effects :
• (a) They may change the shape and the size of an
object. A balloon changes shape depending on
the magnitude of force acting on it.
• (b) Forces also influence the motion of an object.
A force can set an object into motion or it can
bring a moving object to rest. A force can also
change the direction or speed of motion.
• (c) Forces can rotate a body about an axis.
❖ Force is a Vector quantity.
❖ A net non-zero force is required to change the state of a
body.
❖ For a body in motion, the velocity will change depending on
the direction of the force acting on it.
❖ If a net force acts on a body in motion, its velocity will
increase in magnitude, if the direction of the force and
velocity are same.
❖ If the direction of net force acting on the body is opposite
to the direction of motion, the magnitude of velocity will
decrease.
❖ However, if a net force acts on a body in a direction
perpendicular to its velocity, the magnitude of velocity of
the body remains constant . Such a force changes only the
direction of velocity of the body.
❖ We may therefore conclude that velocity of a body changes
as long as a net force is acting on it.
 Inertia

• The property of an object by which it resists a

change in its state of rest or of uniform motion
in a straight line is called inertia. Mass of a
body is a measure of its inertia.
• Inertia of rest:
Marble ball in an
accelerating metro
• Inertia of motion:
Marble ball in
decreasing speed
• Inertia of direction:
Car taking a turn in
a curved road
 Second Law of Motion
• Newton’s second law of motion gives a
quantitative relation between these three
physical quantities. It states that the rate of
change of momentum of a body is equal to
the net force acting on the body. Change in
momentum of the body takes place in the
direction of net external force acting on the
body.
➢ SI UNIT OF FORCE: SI unit of force is Newton [N].
Consider a body of mass, m = 1kg, accelerating with acceleration of 1 m/s2 ,
then force acting on it is given by F = 1kg×1m/s2 or F = 1N
One Newton is that force which provides an acceleration of 1 m/s2 in a body of mass 1
kg.

➢ CGS UNIT: CGS unit of force is dyne.

Consider a body of mass 1 g, moving with acceleration of 1 cm/s2
along straight line, then force experienced by it is: F = 1g×1cm/s2 or F = 1 dyne.
One dyne is that force which when applied on a body of mass 1 g provides it an
acceleration of 1 cm/s2 .

➢ Gravitational units: MKS Gravitational unit of force is Kgf or kgwt, 1 Kgf = 9.8 N CGS
gravitational unit of force is gwt or gf, 1 gwt = 980 dynes.

Common symbols: F→, F

dyne, poundal, pound-
Other units:
force, kip, kilo pond
Derivations from other
F=ma
quantities:
Dimension: LMT-2
 Concept of Momentum
➢ The product of mass m of a body and its velocity
v is called its linear momentum p.
➢ Mathmatically, we write, p = mv
➢ In SI units, momentum is measured in kg ms–1.
➢ Momentum is a vector quantity.
➢ The direction of momentum vector is the same as
the direction of velocity vector. Momentum of an
object, therefore, can change on account of
change in its magnitude or direction or both.
Third Law of Motion
✓ To every action,
there is an equal
and opposite
reaction.
✓ When two objects
interact, the force
exerted by one
object on the
other is equal in
magnitude and
opposite in
direction to the
force exerted by
the latter object
on the former.
 CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM
• In an isolated system, the vector sum of the
momenta of bodies remains constant. This is
called the law of conservation of momentum.
• Conservation of linear momentum is
applicable in a wide range of phenomena such
as collisions, explosions, nuclear reactions,
radioactive decay etc.
 Impulse
• Impulse of a force on a body is defined as the
product of the force of impulse experienced by
body and the time for which impulsive force acts
on body.
• Impulse = Force × time. Impulse is denoted by I.
Thus I = F×t
 APPLICATIONS OF IMPULSE
• A person experiences more injury when it falls on a
cemented floor as compared to sandy ground. When
person falls on a sandy ground, time of collision is more as
compared to a cemented floor, and person experiences
less injury.
• A cricket player lowers its hands while catching the ball to
avoid injury: By lowering its hands, the cricketers
increases the time of impact due to which force of impact
decreases in accordance with Newton’s second law.
• Bogies of a train are provided with spring system: When a
jerk or a shock occurs in the way of train, springs increases
the time of shock, to reach the passengers, and
passengers experiences less injury.
 Motion in a Lift
• When you stand in a lift, and lift accelerates in
upward direction, you feel slightly heavier.
When lift accelerates in downward direction,
you feel slightly lighter than your original
weight. This weight that a body experiences
during the upward or downward motion of a
lift is called apparent weight.
• Case-1: When lift is at rest: In this
case force equation of body, R =
mg.
(Here R is the normal reaction
provided by the floor of lift, this is
equivalent to apparent weight of
body.)
Thus apparent weight is equal to
real weight when lift is at rest.

• Case-2: When lift is moving

uniformly, i.e. with uniform
velocity. In this case also lift has no
acceleration, i.e. a = 0, force
equation of body, R= mg.
• Hence apparent weight is equal to
real weight.
• Case-3: When lift is
accelerating
upwards: In this
situation force
equation of body,
R - mg = ma,
R = mg + ma,
• Thus apparent
weight of body is
greater than its
actual weight, and
the person feels
heavier.
• Case-4: When lift is
accelerating downward:
In this case acceleration
of lift is downward. Force
equation body is,
mg - R = ma,
R = mg – ma,
R = W - ma
(where , W is the actual
weight of body).
• Thus apparent weight of
body is less than its
actual weight during
downward acceleration
of lift, and the person
feels lighter.
• Case-5: When lift is
falling freely: In this
case downward
acceleration of lift is g,
i.e.
a = g.
Thus force equation of
lift is,
mg - R = mg,
R = 0.
• Thus apparent weight
is zero, i.e. the person
experiences
weightlessness.
Thank You