SCI-M 3218

Course Pack

Basic Concepts and Principles for the Elementary Science Education Program:

Physics includes;
Force ,Motion, and Energy

ILO:

At the end of the unit, the pre-service teacher (PST) will be able to:

Show mastery on the basic essential skills for science problem solving. (CLO 3 & 4)

Time allocation: 3.0 hours Synchronous & 9 Hours Asynchronous

Preparation – motivation/review of previous lesson/prior

Knowledge/preliminary exercises.

Synchronous Teaching

Introduction (5 minutes)

Lead the students in a moving exercise.

Tell the students that their movement was an example of kinetic energy, which is the energy of motion. Give
them an example of kinetic energy, such as a child who is running down the street.
Explain that potential energy is the energy that is stored in an object. An example of potential energy would
be a child who is sitting still.
Tell the students that they will be doing an experiment and learning more about force, motion, and energy.

Presentation – discussion/lesson proper

Online lecture-discussion using interactive power point presentation

KEY TERMS:
• Acceleration = the time it takes an object to increase or decrease its speed or direction.
• Balanced forces = equal forces acting on an object.
• Distance = the total length moved by an object.
• Force = a push or pull on an object causing it to change its motion.
• Friction = a force that slows down motion whenever the surfaces of two objects rub against each other.
• Gravity = the force of attraction between objects.
• Kinetic energy = the energy of a moving object.
• Mass = the amount of matter an object contains.
• Potential energy = the energy that is stored in an object.
• Reference point = a place or object used to determine if something is in motion.
• Speed = the distance travelled by a moving object in a specific amount of time.
• Unbalanced force = a force or group of forces that push more on one side of an object than the other and
causes a change in its motion.

Forces, motion and energy

Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of motion describe how forces cause changes to the motion of an object, how
gravity gives weight to mass; how forces cause acceleration and how forces work in collisions.

Forces, motion and energy

Forces

Forces and their effects are all around us. They keep us firmly rooted to the ground, they make us move and
they stop us slipping and sliding. Forces are vital to life and the universe.
However, forces only do three very simple things. They change:
 the shape of an object
 the direction of an object
 the speed of an object
If you crumple up a piece of paper, you have changed its shape. If you throw the paper ball, you have changed
its speed. If you ask a friend to bat it away, they have changed its direction.
Force is measured in the unit called Newton’s (N) – named after the first scientist to quantify forces, Sir Isaac Newton.

We can measure force using a special piece of equipment called the Newton Balance.

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 tyre 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.
Balanced and unbalanced forces

'Unchanging motion' is when the body is at rest or is moving with a steady speed in a straight
line. Balanced forces are responsible for unchanging motion.
Balanced forces are forces where the effect of one force is cancelled out by another. A tug of war,
where each team is pulling equally on the rope, is an example of balanced forces. The forces exerted on the
rope are equal in size and opposite in direction. The rope will have an acceleration of zero under the action of
these balanced forces. It will therefore remain stationary.

Example

Question
A cyclist travelling at 10ms−1 has a forward force of 200N but is acted on by friction and air
resistance of 200N which push against her.

Answer:
The forces are balanced, cancelling each other out, so there is NO CHANGE in the cyclist's motion – the cyclist
continues at a constant speed of 10ms−1.
'Changing motion' includes movement where the body is speeding up or slowing down. It also includes motion
where the direction in which the body moves is changing, ie the body is moving in a curved path. It is unbalanced
forces that cause 'changing motion'.
 Space rocket launch

The lift-off of a space rocket is an example of an unbalanced force in action. The space rocket accelerates
upwards from its launch pad. The thrust (T) from the rocket engines is greater than the weight (W) of the rocket system.
Because force T is greater than the force W, the effect of one force does not cancel that of the other. The forces acting
are unbalanced.

Newton's laws

Sir Isaac Newton, in his laws of motion, made statements about the effect of balanced and unbalanced forces.

Newton's first law is concerned with balanced forces. The first law states that if a body is at rest and the
forces acting on it are balanced then the body will remain at rest. However if the body is moving and the forces
acting are balanced then the body will keep moving at constant speed in a straight line.
See Video click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g550H4e5FCY

Newton's second law is concerned with unbalanced forces. Unbalanced forces produce acceleration.
The bigger the unbalanced force, the bigger the acceleration. This law is usually written as an equation F=ma.
You'll find more information on this law later in this section.

Weight, mass and gravity

The weight of an object is the force on it due to the gravitational pull of gravity at that point. Since it is a
force, weight is measured in Newton’s (not kilograms).
Gravity is different on different planets, so the weight of an object on different planets (or moons) is
different from its weight on Earth.
The mass of an object is the amount of matter that makes up the object and is measured in kilograms.
The mass of an object remains the same no matter where the object is in the universe.

Gravitational field strength

The gravitational field strength (g) of a planet is the weight per unit mass of an object on that planet. It
has the units, Newton’s per kilogram, Nkg−1.

Examples
Earth g=9.8Nkg−1
Mars g=3.7Nkg−1
Moon g=1.6Nkg−1
Calculating weight
The weight of an object can be calculated on different planets so long as we know that
object's mass and the gravitational field strength of the planet. We can calculate weight using the following
formula.
W=mg
Where W = weight and is measured in Newtons (N)
m = mass and is measured in kilograms kg
g = gravitational field strength and is measured in newtons per kilogram (Nkg−1)

Question
An astronaut of mass 75kg travels to the moon. Calculate the weight of the astronaut on the moon if the
gravitational field strength of the moon is

Answer:
To calculate the astronaut’s weight on the moon you need to take the following steps:

Newton's Second Law of motion

Newton's Second Law of Motion is concerned with the effect that unbalanced forces have on motion.
An unbalanced force acting on an object causes it to accelerate. There are two points to note about the acceleration
of an object when an unbalanced force acts on it.
 The bigger the unbalanced force acting on the object the bigger the acceleration of the object.
 The more mass the object has, the more inclined it is to resist any change to its motion. For example, if
you apply the same unbalanced force to a mass of 1000kg and a mass of 1kg, the acceleration
(change in motion) of the 1000kg mass will be much less than that of the 1kg mass.
Newton's second law provides a relationship between the unbalanced force on the object, the mass of the
object and the acceleration that is produced. The amazing thing is that the relationship can be expressed
neatly by a straightforward mathematical equation.

unbalancedforce=mass×acceleration
F=ma
The unbalanced force F is measured in Newtons (N), the mass m is measured in kilograms (kg) and
acceleration a is measured in metres per second per second ms−2.

Learn how forces make things move.

Forces, mass and acceleration See video here click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrZLR05qHaM

Newton's Second Law see video here click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YhYqN9BwB4