FORCES AND
NEWTON’S LAWS AND
THEIR APPLICATION
BY VULANI MASIYA
IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS
Force: anything that exerts a pushing or thrusting action
with any object it is in interaction with.
Mass: The quantity of matter in a body
Weight: The gravitational force, the Earth exerts on an
object on or near its surface(Changes depending on the
distance between the objects ).
Normal Force: The force exerted by the surface, on a
object it is in contact with.
Acceleration: rate of change in velocity
REVISION POINTS
• Resultant vector: is a single vector which has the same effect as the
original vector combined.
• Equilibrium force: force with the same magnitude as the resultant
force, but acting in the opposite direction.
• When two forces are in the same direction you add the two forces and
therefore the resultant is greater.
• Just before your object is moving, you fg// will be equal to fs(max) only
on a slope!!!!
• Law of close triangles: When forces are in Equilibrium their
magnitude and direction can be represented by the three
sides of a triangle.
• Max resultant force: obtained when two forces act in the
same direction.
• Why friction with a tilted surface smaller, then when the
same surface is horizontal?
• Frictional force is directly proportional to the normal Force
• Horizontal N=Fg
• But on a incline N=Fgcos×
Which is way smaller then Fg meaning the frictional force will
be less..
NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION
Newton’s first law: an object continues at a state of rest or uniform velocity unless
acted upon by any non-zero Resultant force /net force.
Newton’s second law: when a net force acts on a object, the object will accelerate in
the direction of the net force and the acceleration will be directly propionate to the net
force and inversely propionate to the mass of the object.
Newton’s third law : When object A exerts a force on object B, object B
simultaneously exerts a force on object A, of equal magnitude to force A but in the
opposite direction.
FRICTION
• Frictional force: The force that opposes the direction of motion of a object,
and acts parallel to the surface.
• Frictional force: The force that opposes the direction of motion of a object,
and acts parallel to the surface.
• Static friction: The force that opposes the tendency of motion of a stationary object,
relative to the surface
• Kinetic friction: The force that opposes the tendency of motion of a moving object,
relative to the surface
• Maximum static friction: The static friction just before an object moves
VERY IMPORTANT NOTES TO REMEMBER
• The normal Force on exists when an object rests on a surface.
• Friction occurs when two surfaces try to slide across one another, and it
depends on:
A) the roughness of the surface.
B) Amount of force pushing the two surfaces together.
Dynamic friction: kinetic friction.
• The maximum static friction force(Fs)max depends on:
A) The coefficient of static friction(μs)
B) The Normal force acting on the object(N)
WHY DO OBJECTS MOVE WHEN WE PUSH ON
THEM?
• When we push an object of let’s say 3kg with a force of 5N, a static
friction force opposes the tendency of motion of the stationary object
As we increase our applied force, static frictional force also increases
Until static frictional force becomes (Fs)max
Once our applied force is bigger then (Fs)max the object moves.
Coefficient of static friction (μs) : A measure of how easily the two
surfaces slide across each other.
CALCULATING THE NORMAL FORCE IN ANY
GIVEN SCENARIO’S
• When an object is at rest on an inclined surface the Normal force is equal to Fg
perpendicular.
• When an a object is on o horizontal surface, Normal force is equal to the weight of the
object.
• If force F acts on a object at an angle to the horizontal:
N+Fy=Fg
• N=Fg-Fy
Depending if it is a pulling or pushing force.
NOTE: Fy is the y-component of the Force acting on that angle.
When Fg parallel is greater than the max static friction force:
(Fs)max <Fg 》
The object slides down the incline.
When Fg parallel is smaller than the max static friction force:
(Fs)max >Fg 》
The object stays on the slope.
NEWTON’S LAW OF GRAVITY
• Every object in the universe exerts a gravitational force on all other particles.
This attraction force is directly proportional to product of their mass and is
inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centres.
• Gravitational acceleration: Is the acceleration that a failing object experiences
due to the gravitational attraction force of the earth on the object in the
absence of air friction.
• An object is only truly weightless when it is somewhere in the universe
where the gravitational field is zero and the force of gravity on the object is
zero.
WHEN FORCES ARE IN EQUILIBRIUM
• Draw a closed triangle to represent the forces, and if they give you the value
of one force and they want you to calculate the other use tan× to work out
the angle where your unknown force is on top and your know force on the
bottom.
• In the absence of friction and other forces(tension,applied force etc.) The
acceleration of an object on an incline plane is the value of the Parallel
component of its weight divided by mass. Which makes sense cause as the
acceleration is always in the direction of the net force, which in this case is
fg// and fg// disposition cause it is the net force the acceleration is following.
INCLINES SURFACES
CHANGES IN ITS MOTION
Objects are know to accelerate down a plane due to fg// (it is the unbalanced
force)
When fg// is left alone (it’s unbalanced) so it moves the object.
• Block at rest on a incline?
Ffs acts up the slope preventing it from sliding.
• If the angle on an incline is decreased, what would happen to its
net force?
Fg// decreases, causing the Fnet to decrease because fg// decreases.
