Group 3 – BEED II-A

Basic Concepts and Principles for the Elementary Science Education Program; Physics includes
Forces, Motion, and Energy

Forces
• An object can be moved by pushing or pulling. In physics, this push and pull is referred to as force (F).
* Force can make objects move, move faster, stop, or change their direction of motion.
Consider a ball on top of a table. If someone pushes the ball, it will move or roll across the surface of
the table. And when it is again pushed in the direction of its motion, it moves farther and even faster.
But when you push it on the other side instead, opposite to the direction of its motion, the ball may
slow down and eventually stop. Lastly, when you push it in a direction different from its original
direction of motion, the ball also changes its direction.

Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

• An object may be acted upon by several forces. It may be pushed and pulled in different directions at
the same time.
• To identify which of these forces would be able to cause change in the motion of the object, it is
important to identify all the forces acting on it.

What are Balanced Forces?

 If the resultant force of all the forces acting on a body sums up to zero, then the forces acting
on the body are known as balanced forces.
 The forces are equal in magnitude
 It does not cause any change in the state of motion of the object.

Balanced Forces Examples:

1) Suppose you are pushing a wall, and as expected, the wall does not move and neither do you. It
means that you and the wall are exerting a balanced force on each other. When the man pushes
against the wall, the forces at play balance each other, and as a result, the wall does not move.
2) A game of tug of war with equally matched opponents is an example of balanced force. Neither of
the teams is able to pull the opposing team towards itself. This is an example of balanced forces.
Neither of the participating teams can pull the other team towards themselves due to balanced forces.

What are Unbalanced Forces?

 When the resultant force acting on a body is not equal to zero, the forces acting on the body
are known as unbalanced forces. The body acted upon by unbalanced forces changes its state
of motion.
 The forces are unequal in magnitude
 Causes change in the state of motion of the object.

Unbalanced Forces Examples:

1) Let us consider the same tug of war example that we discussed in the previous section. When the
forces are balanced, neither of the teams, but if the rope moves away in a particular direction or if a
team wins, then the forces applied by both teams are unbalanced.

2) Practically anything that moves is a result of the exertion of unbalanced forces on it. If you kick a
football and it moves from one place to another, it means that the unbalanced troops are acting upon
it. The ball moves from one place to another after it’s kicked. This is an example of an unbalanced
force.

3) Two people on a seesaw. The person on the right is significantly heavier than the person on the left,
and the seesaw is effectively tilted towards him. This is an example of unbalanced forces. One person
significantly heavier than the other creates a condition of unbalanced forces in a seesaw.

Motion
In physics, motion is the change in position of an object with respect to its surroundings in a given
interval of time. The motion of an object with some mass can be described in terms of the following:
• Distance • Displacement • Speed • Velocity • Time • Acceleration

Types of Motion in Physics

The motion of an object depends on the type of force acting on the body. Examples of different kinds
of motion are given below.

• Translational - It is the type, where an object moves along a path in any of the three dimensions.
Examples:
1) A girl sliding down a slope.
2) Pulling out a drawer of a table.
• Rotational - It is the type, where an object moves along a circular path about a fixed axis.
Examples:
1) Spinning of the earth.
2) Rolling of a ball.

• Linear - It is a type of translational motion where the body moves in a single direction along a single
dimension.
Example:
1) An athlete running a straight line.
2) A car moving on a straight road.

• Periodic - It is the type of motion that repeats itself after certain intervals of time.
Example:
1) A rocking chair.
2) Movement of the swing as it goes back and forth.

• Simple Harmonic - It is the type of motion like that of a simple pendulum where a restoring force
acts in the direction opposite to the direction of motion of the object. This restoring force is
proportional to the displacement of the object from the mean position.
Example:
1) The vibration of the eardrum.
2) Oscillating pendulum.

• Projectile - It is the type of motion which has a horizontal displacement as well as vertical
displacement.
Examples:
1) Throwing a ball or a cannonball.
2) The motion of a billiard ball on the billiard table.

• Oscillatory - It is the type of motion which is repetitive in nature within a time frame. If it is
mechanical it is called vibration.
Examples:
1) The pendulum of a clock exhibits oscillatory motion as it moves to and fro about its mean position.
2) The string of the guitar when strummed moves to and fro by its mean position resulting in an
oscillatory motion.

Newton's Three Laws of Motion

Newton's First Law of Motion: Law of Inertia
* "An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion, with the same speed & same
direction... UNLESS acted upon by an UNBALANCED force"
* In simple words, it means that the objects continue to do what they're doing unless some external
unbalanced force acts on them.
* If the Forces are balanced there can be two cases:
In the first case the object will continue to remain at rest. And in the second, the object will continue
to stay in motion at the same velocity and in the same direction.

Newton's Second Law of Motion: Law of Acceleration

"The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force acting on it and
is inversely proportional to its mass."
* If the forces are unbalanced, then there will be acceleration.
* Acceleration depends directly on the net force.
* The net Force is the product of Mass and acceleration.
* Lesser the mass more the acceleration. And more the mass lesser the acceleration.
* Hence we can say, that acceleration depends inversely on the object's mass.

Mathematically, it can be written like this.

Acceleration = Net force/Mass
a = Fnet/m
This is often rearranged as:
F = m Xa

Examples :
1) Okay, let's say there is an object on a table. (globe) You apply a net force of 10 units on it. (Rotate it)
And then you apply a net force of 20 units on it. In which case do you think the acceleration will be
more? Of course the one in which the force was more. So we can say that one of the things the
acceleration depends on is net force. If it's more, then more will be the acceleration. If it's less then
lesser will be the acceleration.

2) Let's say there are two objects on the table. (Books) One has a mass of three kilograms, and the
other has a mass of five kilograms. Now if you apply net force of ten units to each of them, which one
do you think will accelerate more?
Surely, it's the 3kg one because it has lesser mass. Lesser the mass more the acceleration. And more
the mass lesser the acceleration.
What happens when you place an object on the table? The object exerts a force on the table. And the
subject exert an upward force on the object. There are two forces that result from this interaction. A
force on the table and a force on the object. The magnitudes of the two forces are the same, but the
directions are opposite. These forces are called as action and reaction forces.
The force exerted by the object on the table was an action force. And the force exerted by the table on
the object is the reaction force.

Newton's Third Law of Motion: Law of Interaction

* "Every action has an EQUAL and OPPOSITE reaction"
* In the simplest sense, a force is a push or a pull. However, Newton realized that a force is not a thing
in itself but part of mutual action, an interaction, between one thing and another.
* It means that when two objects interact there is a force on each object. The magnitude of force on
the first object, equals the magnitude of force on the second one.
* The direction of force on the first object, is opposite to the direction of force on the second one.

Examples:
1) While a frog is swimming it pushes the water back, and the water pushes its body forward.
Say a bird is flying upwards, will the Newton's third law apply here? Sometimes the third law is not so
obvious. You'd probably say that the bird is the only object here, and there is no second object. But
that's not correct! The wings of the bird push the air downwards, and the air pushes the bird upwards.
Action and reaction forces make it possible for birds to fly.

2) If you're in a boat and step out of it onto the land, there are two forces involved. You pushing the
boat behind and the boat pushing you forward. And that's why you see the boat go behind when you
go forward. Now let's say a sailor jumps off a huge ship. The sailor does apply a force on the ship and
the ship also applies a force on the sailor. But do you think the ship will accelerate as much as the
sailor? Not really and I think you know why.

Energy
 The capacity to do work is called Energy. This energy can be stored in different forms.
 Energy is one of the physical quantities as it is proportional to the mass of the object.
 The ability of the body to exert a push or a pull against natural forces like gravity identifies what
kind of energy it is.
 Some bodies like waterfalls contain both kinetic and potential energy. The property of body
decides as to what kind of energy is contained in it.

Potential Energy
 It tends to affect the object within the environment if and only when it gets transformed to
other kinds of energy.
 It changes into kinetic energy when an object moves.
 It is the type of energy present in a body due to the property of its state.
  It is not transferable.
 Here, the determining factors are Height/ distance and mass.
 Water present at the top of a hill is an example of potential energy.
 It is non-relative with respect to nature.

Forms of Potential Energy

1) CHEMICAL ENERGY – Chemical energy is energy stored in bonds of atoms and molecules. A
battery stores chemical potential energy which is converted into electrical energy.
2) ELASTIC ENERGY- Elastic energy is potential energy stored as a result of deformation of an
elastic object, such as the stretching of a spring or rubber band.
3) NUCLEAR ENERGY – Nuclear energy is the potential energy found inside the nucleus of an
atom.
4) GRAVITATIONAL ENERGY – Gravitational energy is the potential energy of position or place.

Kinetic Energy
 Unlike the potential energy, the kinetic energy can be transferred from one body to another
body by the process of collision.
 It is the kind of energy present in a body due to the property of its motion.
 It can be easily transferred from one body to another.
 The determining factors for kinetic energy are Speed or velocity and mass.
 Flowing water is one of the examples of kinetic energy.
 It is relative with respect to nature.

Forms of Kinetic Energy

1) MECHANICAL ENERGY – The energy of an object due to its motion or position; the sum of an
object’s kinetic energy and potential energy.
2) LIGHT ENERGY- Radiant energy is electromagnetic energy that travels in transverse waves.
3) ELECTRICAL ENERGY- Electrical energy is caused by moving electric charges called electrons.
4) THERMAL ENERGY- Thermal energy is energy that comes from a substance whose molecules
and atoms are vibrating faster due to a rise in temperature.
5) SOUND ENERGY- Sound energy is the movement of energy through a substance in waves.

Example:
1) A rock which rests at the top of the cliff is said to be an example of the body possessing
potential energy. When the rock falls, it possesses kinetic energy. The energy which is stored in
a body because of the elevation is called gravitational potential energy. The height of the
 waterfall is one of the bases for potential energy, while the movement of water is a base for
kinetic energy.

2) Imagine you have a hammer in your hand. When you raise the hammer higher, it’ll have
potential energy. But as you drop the hammer downwards to bang on a table’s surface, it’ll
have kinetic energy.

3) When the book is at rest, it has potential energy. But when you accidentally knock it off the
table, this potential energy will turn into kinetic energy while the book falls since it’s in motion.
However, as soon as the book hits the floor, this energy of motion will again convert to
potential energy.