ISAAC

NEWTON
AND HIS
THREE LAWS
OF MOTION
NEWTON’S THREE LAWS OF MOTION

First Law of Motion

- Law of Inertia

Second Law of Motion

- Law of Acceleration

Third Law of Motion

- Law of Interaction
ACTIVITY NO. 2
Investigating Inertia

I. OBJECTIVE

At the end of this activity, you

should be able to demonstrate
Newton’s first law of motion.
II. MATERIALS

 empty glass
 5-peso coins (5 pcs or more)
 cardboard
 plastic ruler
 1 peso coin
III. QUESTIONS

1. What happens when you slowly

pulled the cardboard? Explain.
ANS: _______________________

2. What happens when you flicked the

cardboard? Explain.
ANS: _______________________
III. QUESTIONS

3. What happens when you hit the

coin at the bottom? Why is this so?
ANS: _______________________
III. QUESTIONS

1. What happens when you slowly

pulled the cardboard? Explain.
ANSWER:
When we slowly pulled the
cardboard, the coin on top moved with
the cardboard. The frictional force
acting between the coin and the
cardboard caused the coin to stay on
top of the cardboard and move with it.
III. QUESTIONS

2. What happens when you flipped the

cardboard? Explain.
ANSWER:
When the coin was flipped quickly, the
cardboard moved forward but the coin did
not move with it. When the cardboard was
removed from underneath it, the coin
dropped into the glass. The coin did not
move forward with the coin because of the
tendency of the coin to stay at rest (inertia).
III. QUESTIONS

3. What happens when you hit the coin at

the bottom? Why is this so?
ANSWER:
When we hit the bottom coin with
the edge of the ruler, it moved out from
the pile of coins but the other coins
stayed in place. The inertia of the coins
has caused them not to move out with
the coin that was hit by the ruler.
 Newton’s First Law
(Law of Inertia)

An object at rest tends to stay at

rest and an object in motion
tends to stay in motion unless
acted upon by an unbalanced
force.
 Balanced Forces

Equal forces in opposite

directions produce no motion
 Unbalanced Forces

Unequal opposing forces

produce an unbalanced force
causing motion
 If objects in motion tend to stay in
motion, why don’t moving objects keep
moving forever?
Things don’t keep moving forever because
there’s almost always an unbalanced
force acting upon them.

A book sliding across a table

slows down and stops because
of the force of friction.

If you throw a ball upwards it will

eventually slow down and fall
because of the force of gravity.
 Newton’s First Law
(Law of Inertia)

• MASS is the measure of the

amount of matter in an object.

• It is measured in Kilograms.
INERTIA
 Every object has inertia, a property
that resists acceleration.
 The amount of inertia an object has
depends on its mass—which is
roughly the amount of material
present in the object.
 Mass is a measure of the inertia of
an object.
INERTIA
 Newton’s First Law
(Law of Inertia)
• INERTIA is a property of an
object that describes how
much it will resist change to the
______________________
motion of the object

• more _____
mass means more inertia
____
1st Law of Motion
• Unless acted
upon by an
unbalanced
force, this golf
ball would sit
on the tee
forever.
What is this unbalanced force that acts on an
object in motion?

• There are four main types of friction:

– Sliding friction: ice skating
– Rolling friction: bowling
– Fluid friction (air or liquid): air or water
resistance
– Static friction: initial friction when moving
an object
Inertia
 Examples of Newton’s 1st Law of Motion

1. Car suddenly stops

and you strain against
the seat belt
2. Car turns left and
you appear to slide to
the right
3. The difficulty of
pushing a car that
won’t start
 The importance of seatbelts
PURPOSE: The job of the seatbelt is to hold the
passenger in place so the passenger is almost
part of the car which prevents the passenger
from flying forward as the car stops abruptly in
the case of a collision.
When a car stops suddenly due to a collision with
another object such as another car, a tree,
pole, guardrail, etc. the
car's acceleration decreases very quickly in a
short period of time. This is
called deceleration. Newton's Law of
Inertia explains how this happens.
Other Situations that demonstrate LAW of
INERTIA:
1. A ball rolling down a hill will continue to
roll unless friction or another force stops
it.
2. If pulled quickly, a tablecloth can be
removed from underneath of dishes. The
dishes have the tendency to remain still as
long as the friction from the movement of
the tablecloth is not too great.
3. If a car is moving forward is thrown it will
continue to move forward unless friction
or the breaks interfere with its movement.
Other Situations that demonstrate LAW of
INERTIA:
4. When pedaling a bicycle, if you stop
pedaling it, the bicycle continues to move
forward until friction or gravity slows it
down.
5. If a car moves from the speed breaker,
the driver may experience upper part
moving up but bump remains fixed on
seat. Thus, bumps of the driver is said to
be in inertia.
6. A flying kite remains steady up high in
the air. The kite there remains in inertia.
SUMMING IT UP:

 Forces cause changes in

motion.
 Newton’s first law states
that every object continues
in a state of rest, or of
uniform speed in a straight
line, unless acted on by a
nonzero net force.
SUMMING IT UP:
 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 a Law of Inertia is all about.
CHECK UP:

1. Which of the following statements is

most correct?
a) It is possible to have forces on an object
in the absence of changes in motion of
the object.
b) It is possible to have forces on an object
in the absence of motion of the object.
c) Neither (a) nor (b) is correct.
d) Both (a) and (b) are correct.
CHECK UP:

2. An object experiences no
acceleration. Which of the
following cannot be true for the
object?
a) A single force acts on the object.
b) No forces act on the object.
c) Forces act on the object, but the
forces cancel.
 Newton’s Second Law
(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.”
 Newton’s Second Law
(Law of Acceleration)

Force equals
mass times
acceleration.

F = ma
 Newton’s Second Law
• Force = Mass x Acceleration
• Force is measured in Newtons
ACCELERATION of GRAVITY(Earth) = 9.8 m/s2
• Weight (force) = mass x gravity (Earth)

Moon’s gravity is 1/6 of the Earth’s

If you weigh 420 Newtons on earth,
what will you weigh on the Moon?
70 Newtons
If your mass is 41.5Kg on Earth
what is your mass on the Moon?
 HOW ARE FORCE AND
ACCELERATION RELATED?

According to the second law of motion,

the acceleration of the object is directly
related to the force that caused the change in
motion. This means a small force will result in
a small acceleration, and a large force will
result in a large acceleration.
 HOW ARE MASS AND
ACCELERATION RELATED?

The acceleration of an object is

inversely related to its mass. If the same
amount of force is applied to objects with
different mass, the object with less mass
will have a larger acceleration than the
object with greater mass.
 HOW ARE FORCE AND
MASS RELATED?

Force and mass are directly related.

More force is needed to accelerate an
object with a large mass. Less force is
needed to accelerate an object with a small
mass.
 HOW ARE FORCE AND
MASS RELATED?

If two balls are falling at the same

rate of acceleration and hit the
ground, the ball with more mass
applies a greater force to the ground
than the ball with less mass.
Sample Problems:
1. Suppose a ball of mass 0.60 kg
is hit with a force of 12 N. What
will be its acceleration?
2. A soccer player kicks a 0.45 kg
soccer ball, and the ball
accelerates at a rate of 200 m/s2.
How much force did the soccer
player use to kick the ball?
Sample Problems:
3. A bowler uses 10.5 N of force to roll a
bowling ball, and the ball accelerates
down the bowling lane at a rate of 2.5
m/s2. What is the mass of the bowling
ball?

4. A spring scale is used to apply 4 N of

force to a toy car with a mass of 0.3 kg.
What is the acceleration of the toy car?
 Solve the following problems:
1. A person with a mass of 75 kg is
accelerated to 3 m/s2. How much
force was applied to him?
2. A batter hits a baseball with 500 N
and the ball is accelerated at 25 m/s2 .
What is the mass of the ball?
3. An object with a mass of 3.0 kg has a
force of 9.0 newtons applied to it.
What is the resulting acceleration of
the object?
REVIEW
REVIEW
REVIEW
QUESTION:

1. What is Law of Acceleration?

ANSWER:
The Law of Acceleration states
that 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.
QUESTION:
2. How are force and mass
related?
ANSWER:
Force and mass are directly
related. More force is needed to
accelerate an object with a large
mass. Less force is needed to
accelerate an object with a small
mass.
QUESTION:
3. How are force and acceleration
related?
ANSWER:
The acceleration of the object is
directly related to the force that
caused the change in motion. This
means a small force will result in a
small acceleration, and a large force
will result in a large acceleration.
QUESTION:
4. How are mass and acceleration
related?
ANSWER:
The acceleration of an object is
inversely related to its mass. If the
same amount of force is applied to
objects with different mass, the object
with less mass will have a larger
acceleration than the object with
greater mass.
QUESTION:
5. Given the value of the force and
mass, how are you going to solve
for acceleration?
ANSWER:
Acceleration is equal to force divided
by the mass of an object.
a = F/m
QUESTION:
6. Given the value of the force and
acceleration, how are you going to
solve for the value of mass?
ANSWER:
Mass is equal to force divided by the
acceleration of an object.
m = F/a
QUESTION:
7. Given the value of the mass and
acceleration, how are you going to
solve for the value of the force?
ANSWER:
Force is equal to the product of the
mass and acceleration.
F = ma
 Solve the following problems:
1. A thug pushes some 100 kg punk
with 300 N of force. How much is the
punk accelerated?
2. A batter hits a baseball with 200 N
and the ball is accelerated at 25 m/s2 .
What is the mass of the ball?
3. A 5 kg book rests on a table. How
much force is it exerting on the
table? (Hint: think about acceleration
due to gravity.)
 Free Fall and Newton’s
Second Law of Motion
QUESTION:

“Suppose you drop two books

of different masses from the
same height, which will hit the
ground first?”
 Free Fall and Newton’s
Second Law of Motion
Gravity acts on all objects on the
earth’s surface and causes them to
accelerate when released. This
acceleration, known as the
acceleration due to gravity g, is the
same for all objects on earth and is
equal 9.8 m/s2. This means that when
objects fall, their velocities increase by
9.8 m/s every 1 second.
 Newton’s Third Law
(Law of Interaction)

“For every action there is an equal and

opposite reaction.”
 Newton’s 3rd Law
According to Newton, whenever objects
A and B interact with each other, they exert
forces upon each other.
When you sit in your chair, your body
exerts a downward force on the chair and the
chair exerts an upward force on your body.
There are two forces resulting from this
interaction - a force on the chair and a force
on your body. These two forces are
called action and reaction forces and are the
subject of Newton's third law of motion.
 For every action, there is an
equal and opposite reaction.
The statement means that in every
interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on
the two interacting objects. The size of the
forces on the first object equals the size of
the force on the second object. The direction
of the force on the first object is opposite to
the direction of the force on the second
object. Forces always come in pairs - equal
and opposite action-reaction force pairs.
The difference between the forces related to
Law of Interaction and forces in a balanced
state are as follows:
 Think about it . . .
What happens if you are standing on a
skateboard or a slippery floor and push against
a wall? You slide in the opposite direction
(away from the wall), because you pushed on
the wall but the wall pushed back on you with
equal and opposite force.

Why does it hurt so much when you stub

your toe? When your toe exerts a force on a
rock, the rock exerts an equal force back on
your toe. The harder you hit your toe against
it, the more force the rock exerts back on your
toe (and the more your toe hurts).
 Other situations
that illustrate Law
of Interaction
Example No. 1
A fish uses its fins to push water
backwards. But a push on the water will only
serve to accelerate the water. Since forces
result from mutual interactions, the water
must also be pushing the fish forwards,
propelling the fish through the water.
The size of the force on the water
equals the size of the force on the fish; the
direction of the force on the water
(backwards) is opposite the direction of the
force on the fish (forwards).
Example No. 2
A bird flies by use of its wings.
The wings of a bird push air downwards.
Since forces result from mutual
interactions, the air must also be pushing
the bird upwards.
The size of the force on the air
equals the size of the force on the bird; the
direction of the force on the air
(downwards) is opposite the direction of
the force on the bird (upwards).
Example No. 3
A car is equipped with wheels that
spin. As the wheels spin, they grip the road
and push the road backwards. Since forces
result from mutual interactions, the road
must also be pushing the wheels forward.
The size of the force on the road
equals the size of the force on the wheels
(or car); the direction of the force on the
road (backwards) is opposite the direction of
the force on the wheels (forwards).
QUESTIONS?