For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:

www.megalecture.com

A force can be a push or a pull. Force acting on a body tends to produce a change
in velocity or acceleration of the body.
• SI unit of force is the newton (N). It is a vector quantity.
• We can add/subtract forces. (More about this at Addition of forces)
• Whenever we are pushing, pulling, lifting, bending, twisting, tearing, stretching or squeezing, we
are exerting a force.

Force can:
• make a stationary body move
• change the speed of a body
• change the direction of motion of a body (It is possible to change the direction of motion of a
body without changing its speed.)
• change the size or shape of the body

re
Here are some forces which you are familiar with:
• Gravitational force – force due to gravitational pull
• Frictional force – force which opposes motion

tu
• Electrical force – force of attraction or repulsion between electrical charges
• Magnetic force – force of attraction or repulsion between the poles of magnets
• Contact force – force of repulsion when two objects are pressed together (Caused by the
repulsion between surface atoms)
c
Le
Since force is a vector quantity, forces can be represented by an arrow diagram.
• The magnitude of the force is represented by the length of the arrow
• The direction of the force is represented by the direction in which the arrow is pointed.

Resultant force is the combination of 2 or more forces.

a

• The effect on a body produced by 2 or more forces acting on it will be the same as that
produced by their resultant force.
eg

• Hence, resultant force is used to simplify force diagrams – it is easier to deal with one resultant
force than multiple forces.

Forces are in the same direction

M

The above figure shows two forces – 10 N and 20 N acting on a car. The resultant force will be 30 N to
the right, which is obtained by adding the two forces numerically.

In the general case, where there is F1 to Fn acting on an object in the same direction,
F resultant = F1+F2+…+ Fn

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

Forces are in opposite direction

When the applied forces are in the opposite direction, the resultant force is dependent on the
magnitude of the forces. Using the first car in the above figure, there are two forces 20 N and 40 N

re
acting on it. The resultant force will be 20 N as Fresultant= 40–20 = 20N to the right.
When the two forces are same in magnitude but different in direction, the resultant force will be 0 (as
seen above)

tu
Slightly more advanced trick:
Taking rightward as positive, the forces acting on the car will be -20 N (Negative because the force is to
the left) and + 40 N.
c
Using the addition of forces, F resultant=(–20 )+40 =+20N, which is 20 N to the right.
Le
Worked Example
Q. Three forces of 3 N, 1.5 N and 2 N are acting on an object, as shown in the picture below.
a
eg
M

What is the resultant due to the three forces?

From the diagram above and taking rightward as positive, the resultant force is given by:
F resultant=3−1.5−2=−0.5 N

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

Forces at an angle to each other (Drawing force diagrams)

This will be more complicated than the previous two cases. We can use the parallelogram law of vector
addition to find the resultant force.

Consider the above diagram, we are given two forces – A and B. We will shift B to match up with A as

re
seen below.

c tu
Le
After shifting B, we draw two more lines to make it a parallelogram. The resultant force will just be the
red line in the diagram below:
a
eg

Bonus: Can you work out what happens if the two forces are at 90∘ to each other?
M

Ans: The parallelogram is now a square and you can just use Pythagoras’ Theorem to find the magnitude
of the resultant force. E.g.

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

Newton’s First Law of Motion

When two or more external forces acting on a body produce no net resultant force, i.e., vector sum of

re
forces is zero, we say that the forces are balanced. The lack of resultant force produces no
net acceleration and hence, the body will remain at rest or moves at its original constant velocity in a
straight line.

tu
• This is Newton’s First Law of Motion
• An external force is one whose source lies outside of the body being considered. e.g. weight of a
body and friction
c
• The resultant force is the vector sum of all external forces exerted on a body.
Newton’s First Law of Motion is also known as the law of inertia. Inertia is a property of mass resisting
Le
any change from its original state of rest or motion. The greater the mass of a body, the greater will be
its inertia and the greater will be its resistance to changes to its state of rest or motion.

A body at rest implies that the net resultant force exerted on the body is zero.
1. However, it is not necessarily that there is no forces acting on the body.
a
eg
M

b. For instance, a box resting on a table has zero net resultant force. But there are two forces acting on
the box! One of the force is the gravitational force due to the weight of the box, while the other is the
normal force.

2. Normal force (or reaction force) is an external force exerted perpendicularly by the surface in
reaction to any body placed against it.

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

Other Laws of motion

Newton’s 3 laws of motion are:
1st law: Newton’s first law of motion states that a body will continue in its state of rest or uniform
motion in a straight line unless an external resultant force acts on it.

2nd law: Newton’s second law states that the rate of change of momentum of a body is proportional to
the resultant force acting on it and the change takes place in the direction of the force.

3rd law: Newton’s third law states that: If body A exerts a force on body B, then body B exerts a force of
equal magnitude but in the opposite direction on body A.

We will explore the 2nd law of motion in greater details in the subsequent posts.

Newton’s Third Law of Motion

re
c tu
Le
Newton’s third law states that: If body A exerts a force on body B, then body B exerts a force of equal
magnitude but in the opposite direction on body A.
a

Forces always occur in pairs – Action force and reaction force.

eg

Action and Reaction Forces

Some properties of the action and reaction forces are as follows:
• The action and reaction forces are equal in magnitude.
• The action and reaction forces act opposite to one another.
M

• The action and reaction forces act on different bodies.

When two or more external forces acting on a body produce a net resultant force, i.e, the vector sum of
forces is not zero, the forces are unbalanced.

• Newton’s Second Law of Motion says that the resultant force acting on a body produces a
net acceleration and causes the body to accelerate in the direction of the resultant force.
• If the net resultant force is in the direction of the motion, the body will accelerate.
• If the net resultant force is against the direction of motion, the body will decelerate.
• For a body of constant mass, Newton’s Second Law of Motion can be expressed as: F = ma,
where F = force
m = mass
a = acceleration

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

• Since mass (m) is scalar quantity, the direction of acceleration (a) is thus in the same direction as
the applied force (F).
• To calculate the acceleration of a body, one should use the net resultant force exerted on it.

Note:
All forces observed in nature can be explained in terms of four basic interactions that occur between
elementary particles:
• Gravitational force
• Electromagnetic force
• Strong nuclear force
• Weak nuclear force

Examples
Q. A box of mass 20 kg is pushed with a force of 50 N. What is the acceleration of the box? Neglect the

re
effects of friction.

From Newton’s Second Law,

tu
F=ma
𝐹
a=
𝑚
50
c a=
20
Le
=2.5 m s−1

Q. A car of mass 1000 kg accelerates from rest to 20 m s−1 in 5 s. Calculate the driving force of the
engine. (Neglect the effects of friction)
a

Friction
Friction is the force that resists the motion of one surface relative to another with which it is in contact.
eg

It is parallel to the contact surfaces and opposite to the direction of motion or impeding motion.
• SI unit of friction is newton (N). It is a vector quantity.
• Viscous force is the equivalence of friction in fluids that resists the relative motion of a body
through the fluid.
M

Body in Motion
When a body is in motion, friction will tend to slow it down.

• Example: Pushing a box along the table. The box will eventually come to rest.

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
 For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

• The friction comes from the microscopic surface irregularities of the two surfaces (of the box
and the table). The surface irregularities catch onto each other and resist motion.

Body in Motion (With pushing force)

When the magnitude of the pushing force is equal to the magnitude of frictional force on the object, the
object will travel at a constant speed.
• Why? Since the magnitude of the pushing force is equal to the magnitude of the frictional force on the
object, there will be zero resultant force. From Newton’s 2nd law of motion (F=maF=ma), there will be
zero acceleration (i.e. constant speed).

Body at Rest

re
c tu
Le
When a body is at rest, friction will have to be overcome before the body can start to move.
• Why? For a body to embark on a state of motion, there needs to be acceleration.
From Newton’s 2nd law of motion (F=maF=ma), we will require a non-zero resultant force to be
acting on the body. Hence, the pushing force (or driving force) must be greater than the
a

frictional force.
• In the picture above, the pushing force of 4N is not enough to overcome the frictional force.
eg

Hence the body is at rest.

Advantages and Disadvantages of friction

M

ADVANTAGES OF FRICTION DISADVANTAGES OF FRICTION

Able to start of stop motion (Used in braking pads to Reduces speed of motion (A box sliding along the floor
slow down cars) gradually comes to a stop)

Causes wear and tear (Gears get worn out and require
Prevents slipping when walking
replacements)

Essential for rolling motion (You cannot roll a ball if

Energy is wasted as work done to overcome friction
there is no friction!)

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

Methods to reduce friction:

• Lubricate the surfaces in contact
• Smoothen the surfaces in contact (E.g. By polishing)
• Place ball bearings, rollers between surfaces
• Use an air cushion between surfaces (E.g. Hovercraft)

Example:
A man pushes a trolley forward with a force of 10 N. The floor exerts a frictional force of 7 N on the
trolley. Find the acceleration of the trolley, given that the mass is 10 kg. If there is no friction, what
would be the new acceleration?

Solution:

Net resultant force: Fres=Fman–Ffric

re
=10−7
=3 N
Net resultant acceleration is given by Newton’s 2nd law of motion,

tu
𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑠
a=
c 𝑚

3
Le
==
10

=0.3 ms−2

Additional Notes:
•
a

The major cause of friction between solids appears to be the forces of attraction, known as adhesion
(electromagnetic forces), between the contact regions of the surfaces, which are always microscopically
irregular. Friction arises from shearing these “welded” junctions and from the actions of the irregularities
eg

of the harder surface plowing across the softer surface.

• Sliding friction arises because of relative motion between surfaces. There are two kinds of sliding friction:
static and kinetic. Static sliding friction refers to the amount of force that needs to be overcome to start
motion. On the other hand, kinetic sliding friction is the force that needs to be overcome in order to
M

maintain relative motion between the surfaces.

• The force required to start motion, or to overcome static friction, is always greater than the force
required to continue the motion, or to overcome kinetic friction.
• From experiments, sliding friction is found to be proportional to the load or weight of the body in contact
with a surface and is nearly independent of the area of contact.
• Rolling friction occurs when a wheel, ball, or cylinder rolls freely over a surface. (Not possible to roll
without friction!)
• Sliding friction is generally 100 to 1,000 times greater than rolling friction. Thus, a body on a sledge is
harder to pull than the same body on wheels.

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

Summary

re
c tu
Le
a
eg
M

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

re
c tu
Le
a
eg

In all cases, resistive forces act to oppose motion. Therefore, unless a force is applied to balance the
resistive force the object will slow down. In space, there are no resistive forces and objects will move at
M

constant speed in a straight line unless another force acts.

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

Newton’s First Law of Motion:

• If the resultant force acting on a body is zero, it will remain at rest or continue to move at the
same speed in the same direction.
• If the resultant force acting on a body is not zero, it will accelerate in the direction of the
resultant force.

re
c tu
Le
We define the Newton as the force needed to accelerate a 1 kg mass at 1 m/s2. Therefore, we can
write:
Force (N) = mass (kg) × acceleration (m/s2)
a

Newton’s Second Law

eg
M

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

Newton’s Third Law

Whenever an object experiences a force it always exerts an equal . . . . . and . . . . . opposite force on the
object causing the force.

re
c tu
Le
a
eg
M

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

Motion in Circles and Centripetal Forces

re
c tu
Le
a
eg
M

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

re
c tu
Le
a
eg
M

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

re
c tu
Le
a
eg
M

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123
For Live Classes, Recorded Lectures, Notes & Past Papers visit:
www.megalecture.com

re
c tu
Le
a
eg
M

youtube.com/c/MegaLecture/
+92 336 7801123