Newton’s three (3) laws of motion

The principles behind Newton’s laws of

motion are very significant in
understanding the motion of objects in
our universe. Their applications are all
around us. Understanding these laws,
therefore helps us understand why the
things around us move or behave the
way they do.
 Newton’s first law of motion
Law of Inertia
If the forces acting on an object at
rest are balanced or if their
algebraic sum equate to zero, the
object stays at rest. This illustrates
Newton’s First law of Motion, a
principle that was primarily based
on the works of Galileo.
 Activity 1 demonstrates how the inertia
of an object affects its motion.
Inertia is the tendency of the body
to resist changes in its state of motion.
This is described through Newton’s
First Law of Motion.
If an object is acted upon by balanced
forces, its motion or its velocity will not
change. Since acceleration is defined as
the change in velocity over time, then we
can say that the object will not accelerate.
It will only accelerate if the forces
acting on it are unbalanced. This is
what the law of inertia is all about. It
states that, “An object will stay at
rest or move at constant velocity
unless an unbalanced external
force acts on it.” And the greater the
body’s mass, the greater will be its
inertia.
Measures of Inertia
All objects have the tendency to
resist changes in their state of motion
or keep doing what they are doing.
However, changing a body’s state of
motion depends on its inertia. A more
massive object which has more inertia
is more difficult to move from rest, slow
down, speed up, or change its
direction.
 Newton’s First law
States that an object at rest will stay at
rest or an object in motion will stay in
motion and travel in straight line, as
long as no external net force acts on
it. The object will change its state of
motion only if there is unbalanced or net
force acting upon it.
 Newton’s second law of motion
Law of Acceleration
When the velocity of moving body
changes, we describe the motion as
one with acceleration.
Question:
Is there any relationship between
acceleration and any unbalanced
force that acts on the body?
abstraction
If the net force acting on an object is
constant, its velocity changes at a
constant rate over time. Hence, it is
considered to be moving with constant
acceleration. In the tape chart, this is
indicated by the uniform increase in
length of the strips over time. But if the
force acting on the object is changed,
its acceleration will also change.
Based on Activity 2, we noticed that as the
number of rubber bands increases, the
acceleration of the cart also increases.
When the net force is doubled,
acceleration is also doubled. When it is
tripled, acceleration is also tripled.
We can therefore say that at constant mass,
the acceleration of an object is directly
proportional to the magnitude of the
unbalanced force F acting on it. This
relationship can be mathematically
expressed as:
 a = kF where k = mass
What if the mass of the object is changed
and the force is kept constant?
Acceleration also varies with the mass of
the object. As the mass of the object
increases, with the same amount of
force applied, its acceleration
decreases. This relationship can also be
expressed as:
a = k (1/m) where k = net force
If we combine these two
relationships, we would come up
with this relationship:
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”.
This statement actually pertains to
Newton’s second law of motion or Law
of Acceleration, because it is
concerned with the relation of
acceleration to mass and force. This
can be expressed in equation form as:
Acceleration = Net Force/Mass
a = Fnet/m
This is often rearranged as: a = Fnet/ma
Like any other quantity, force has a
unit and expressed in Newton (N).
One Newton is defined as the
amount of force required to give a
1-kg mass an acceleration of 1
m/s/s, or:
1Newton (N) = 1kg/ms2
Sample Mathematical Problem:
Suppose a ball of mass 0.60 kg is hit
with a force of 12 N. Its acceleration
will be:
a = FNet
m
a = 12N
0.60kg
a = 20 m/s2
If the force is increased to 24 N
for the same ball then,
a = 24 N
0.6 kg
a = 40 m/s2
Free fall and Newton's second law of motion
Suppose you drop two books of different masses
from the same height, which will hit the ground
first?
Think about this: If we use the Law of
Acceleration, the heavier book must be the one
to hit the ground first because gravity pulls on it
with more force. But if we use the Law of Inertia,
the lighter book must be the one to hit the
ground first because of its lesser inertia. But if
you actually try it out, you would find that they
will both reach the floor at the same time. How
come?
Gravity acts on all objects on Earth’s surface
and causes them to accelerate when
released. This acceleration, known as the
acceleration due to gravity, is the same for
all objects on Earth and is equal to 9.8 m/s2.
This means that when objects fall, their
velocities increase by 9.8 m/s every 1 second.
The books in the example fall to the ground at
the same rate (acceleration) even if they differ
in mass. And since they were released from
the same height at the same time, they will
reach the ground at the same time.
 Circular motion and Newton's
2nd law of motion
Newton’s Second Law was arrived at by
studying straight line motion. Does this
apply to circular motion as well?
Try this: Try to whirl an object tied to a
string horizontally above your head.
Then observe what happens if you
release the object. How does it travel
after release?
Acceleration does not only refer to change in
speed. It also refers to change in direction. In
the case of circular motion, the whirling
object accelerates not due to the change in
its speed but to the change in the direction of
its velocity. By Newton’s second law of
motion, a net force must be acting on
accelerating objects. So where is this net
force coming from? For the stone to
move in a horizontal circle, what must
you do?
You have to pull the stone inward towards the
center of the circular path. So the force
comes from the string that pulls the object
towards the center of its circular path. If you
remove this force by either cutting or
releasing the string, you will observe that the
object will continue to move straight and fly
off tangential to the path. This is the natural
tendency of the object if there is no net force
acting on it, according to the First Law of
Motion.
But because of the net force from the
string, instead of going straight, the
object accelerates inwards thereby
covering a circular path. The object is
said to be in uniform circular motion.

Think About This:

If the object in uniform circular motion is
accelerating towards the center of the circle,
why does it maintain a circular path at a
constant radius and never get closer to the
center of the circle?
 Newton’s third law of motion:
law of interaction

Law of Interaction (Action-

Reaction)
“For every action, there is
an equal and opposite
reaction.”
Newton’s Third Law of motion states that if one
object exerts a force on another object, then
the second object exerts a force of equal
strength in the opposite direction on the first
object.
Example:
When you walk, you push the ground with your
feet. The ground pushes back on your feet
with an equal and opposite force. You go
forward when you walk because the ground
is pushing you.
MOMENTUM
When Newton presented his three laws of
motion, he used two different words to
describe moving objects. He used the word
velocity, but he also wrote about something
that he called the “quantity of motion”. What
is this quantity of motion? Today we call it
momentum. The Momentum of an object is
the product of its mass and its velocity.
Momentum = Mass x Velocity
The unit of measurement is kilogram-meters
per second (kg*m/s)