PHYSICS

MOTION, LAWS OF MOTION,

FORCE, FRICTION & CENTER
OF MASS
■ Projectile Motion
■ Projectile is the name given to a body thrown with some initial velocity in any arbitrary direction
and then allowed to move under the influence of a constant acceleration. The motion of a
projectile is called projectile motion.
■ Example : A football kicked by the player, a stone thrown from the top of building, a bomb
released from a plane. The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory, mostly, the
trajectory of a projectile is parabolic.

■ Maximum height (H): When a projectile moves, it covers a maximum distance in vertical
direction. This maximum distance is called the maximum height attained by the projectile.
■ Horizontal range (R): The horizontal distance between the point of projection and the point of
landing of a projectile.

■ Time of flight (T): The time taken by the projectile to reach the point of landing from the point of
projection.
LAWS OF MOTION AND FORCE
■ NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION
■ Newton’s First Law of Motion
■ According to this law, an object continues in a state of rest or in a state of motion at a constant
speed along a straight line, unless compelled to change that state by a net force. In other words, if
a body is in a state of rest, it will remain in the state of rest and if it is in the state of motion, it will
remain moving in the same direction with the same velocity unless an external unbalanced force
is applied on it. This law is also called law of inertia. It gives qualitative definition of force.
■ Newton’s Second Law of Motion
■ It states that the rate of change of momentum of a body is directly proportional to the applied
unbalanced force. i.e., Rate of change of momentum ∝ force applied
■ Newton’s Third Law of Motion
■ It states that to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction
■ FORCE
■ A force is that physical quantity which tries to change or changes the state of rest or of uniform
motion of a body. Units of force: The S.I. unit of force is newton. In C.G.S. system, the unit of
force is dyne. 1 newton = 105 dyne In MKS system, the unit of force is the kilogramme force
(kgf). 1 kgf = 9.8 newton (or 9.8 N)
■ Basic Forces in Nature
■ There are four basic forces in nature and they are
■ (i) Gravitational Force: Every body in the universe attracts each other, this force is known as
gravitational force. This is the weakest force among all other forces which is existing.
■ (ii) Weak Nuclear Force: These forces are 1025 times stronger than gravitational force.
■ (iii) Electromagnetic Force: The electromagnetic forces are the forces between the charged
particles. When charges are at rest, then the force is called as electrostatic force. This force is
much stronger than gravitational force and it dominates atomic and molecular phenomena.
■ (iv) Strong nuclear forces : This is the strongest force found in nature. These forces acts between
the proton and the neutron in order to bind them in the nucleus. This force is 10 38 times stronger
than gravitational forces, 102 times stronger than electrostatic forces and 10 13 times stronger than
weak nuclear forces.
■ FRICTION
■ Friction is a resistance to the relative motion between two objects in contact (in case of solid
objects) or the body and its surroundings (in case object is moving in a fluid). Actually, when two
objects are kept in contact, a reaction force R acts between the two objects as shown in the figure.
This reaction force R has two components -F, along the surface and N, perpendicular to the
surface. The force F which acts along the surface is called the force of friction. The results of
experimental investigation into the behaviour of frictional forces confirm that:
■ frictional force opposes the movement of an object across the surface of another with which it is
in rough contact.
■ the direction of the frictional force is opposite to the potential direction of motion.
■ the magnitude of the frictional force is only just sufficient to prevent movement and increases as
the tendency to move increases, up to a limiting value. When the limiting value is reached, the
frictional force cannot increase any further and motion is about to begin (limiting equilibrium).
When the frictional force F reaches its limit, its value then is related to the normal reaction N in
the following way F = μN or μ = F/N The constant μ is called the coefficient of friction and each
pair of surfaces has its own value for this constant.
■ Types of Friction
■ Static frictional force: When there is no relative motion between the contact surfaces, frictional
force is called static frictional force. It is a self-adjusting force, it adjusts its value according to
requirement. The maximum value of static friction is called limiting friction.
■ Kinetic frictional force: Once relative motion starts between the surfaces in contact, the
frictional force is called as kinetic frictional force. The magnitude of kinetic frictional force is
also proportional to normal force i.e., fk = mkN
■ Sliding friction: When one body slides over the surface of another body, the resistance to its
motion is called as sliding friction. It is always more than rolling friction.
■ Rolling friction: When one body rolls over the surface of another body, the resistance to its
motion is termed as rolling friction. Friction in this case is very small. The coefficient of rolling
friction (μR) is the least and coeficient of static friction is maximum, i.e., μR < μK < μS.
■ Motion in a Lift
■ The weight of a body is simply the force exerted by earth on the body. If body is on an
accelerated platform, the body experiences fictitious force, so the weight of the body appears
changed and this new weight is called apparent weight. Let a man of weight W = Mg be standing
in a lift.

■ CENTRIPETAL FORCE
■ If m be the mass of object then it experiences a force which directs towards the centre of the
circular path and has a magnitude given by
■ CENTRIFUGAL FORCE
■ The virtual force which balances the centripetal force in uniform circular motion is called as
centrifugal force. It is not the real force as it is due to the acceleration of rotating frame. When a
body is rotating in a circular path and the centripetal force vanishes, the body would leave the
circular path.
CENTER of MASS
■ The motion through space in which the position of the centre of mass of the object changes is considered
as translational motion.
■ CENTRE OF MASS (COM)
■ For a system of particles, centre of mass, is that point at which its total mass is supposed to be
concentrated.
■ Rigid Body
■ A body which does not deform on the application of whatsoever large force is called a rigid body. Ideally
such type of body will not exist but practically, large, extended object can be treated as rigid body. For
example, door is a rigid body.
■ Centre of Mass of Some Symmetrical Regular Shaped Objects
■ When bodies are symmetrical in shape and have uniform densities then their centre of mass would lie on
their geometrical centres.
■ The position of centre of mass depends on following two factors:
– The geometrical shape of the body
– The distribution of mass in the body
■ BANKING OF ROAD
■ The tilting of the vehicle is achieved by raising the outer edge of the circular track, slightly above
the inner edge. This is known as banking of curved track.
■ CONDITION OF OVERTURNING
■ If speed is greater than limiting speed, then condition of overturning is occurred.
■ LAW OF CONSERVATION OF ENERGY
■ According to this law, energy can only be converted from one form to another, it can neither be
created nor destroyed. The total energy before and after the transformation always remains the
same.
■ Transformation of Energy
■ The conversion of one form of energy to the other form is termed as transformation of energy.
The phenomenon in which energy is transformed from useful from to useless form is known as
dissipation of energy.
■ Mass-Energy equivalence Relation
■ According to this relation mass (m) and energy (E) are interconvertible
■ E = mc2
■ Where, c = 3 × 108 ms–1 is the velocity of light in vaccum or air.