Newton’s Laws of Motion

Newton’s First Law

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.
 What does this mean?
An object will “keep doing what it was doing”
unless acted on by an unbalanced force.

If the object was sitting still, it will remain

stationary. If it was moving at a constant
velocity, it will keep moving.

It takes force to change the motion of an

object.
 What is meant by balanced and
unbalanced force?

Balanced = causes
objects to be
stationary.

Unbalanced = causes
objects to change it’s
motion.

If the forces on an object are equal and opposite, they are said
to be balanced, and the object experiences no change in
motion. If they are not equal and opposite, then the forces are
unbalanced and the motion of the object changes.
 Some Examples from Real Life

A soccer ball is sitting at rest. It

takes an unbalanced force of a kick
to change its motion.

Two teams are playing tug of war. They are both

exerting equal force on the rope in opposite
directions. This balanced force results in no change
of motion.
 Newton’s First Law
introduces the Law
of Inertia
Inertia: the tendency of an object
to resist changes in its state of
motion
The First Law states that all
objects have inertia. The more
mass an object has, the more
inertia it has (and the harder it
is to change its motion).
Mass: a measure of the inertia for
an object.
 More Examples from Real Life
A powerful locomotive begins to pull a long line of
boxcars that were sitting at rest. Since the
boxcars are so massive, they have a great deal of
inertia and it takes a large force to change their
motion. Once they are moving, it takes a large
force to stop them.
 However….
In outer space, away from gravity and any
sources of friction, a rocket ship launched
with a certain speed and direction would
keep going in that same direction and
at that same speed forever.

Laika's "coffin" circled the

Earth 2,570 times and
burned up in the Earth's
atmosphere on 4 April
1958.
 Newton’s Second Law

Force equals mass times acceleration.

F = ma

Force, F = The force that must be exerted on a 1 kg

mass to cause it to accelerate at 1 m/s². Thus the
unit is abbreviated as Newton (N) or kg.m/s²

Acceleration, a : A measurement of how quickly an

object is changing speed.
 What does F = ma mean?
Force is directly proportional to mass and
acceleration. Imagine a ball of a certain mass moving
at a certain acceleration. This ball has a certain
force.

Now imagine we make the ball twice as big (double the

mass) but keep the acceleration constant. F = ma says
that this new ball has twice the force of the old ball.

Now imagine the original ball moving at twice the

original acceleration. F = ma says that the ball will
again have twice the force of the ball at the original
acceleration.
 More about F = ma
If you double the mass, you double the force. If you
double the acceleration, you double the force.

What if you double the mass and the acceleration?

(2m)(2a) = 4F

Doubling the mass and the acceleration quadruples the

force.

So . . . what if you decrease the mass by half? How

much force would the object have now?
 What does F = ma say?
F = ma basically means that the force of an object
comes from its mass and its acceleration.

Something very massive (high mass)

that’s changing speed very slowly
(low acceleration), like a glacier, can
still have great force.

Something very small (low mass) that’s

changing speed very quickly (high
acceleration), like a bullet, can still
have a great force. Something very
small changing speed very slowly will
have a very weak force.
 Mass vs Weight
• If an object of mass m is free falling, the only
force acting upon it is the pull of gravity,
abbreviated Fw of the object.

• Fw is also called the weight of the object,

which is the gravitational force acting
downward on the object.

• Fw = ma
= mg
 Newton’s Third Law

For every action there is an equal and

opposite reaction.
 What does this mean?
For every force acting on an object, there is an equal
force acting in the opposite direction.
 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).
 Review
Newton’s First Law:
Objects in motion tend to stay in motion
and objects at rest tend to stay at rest
unless acted upon by an unbalanced
force.

Newton’s Second Law:

Force equals mass times acceleration
(F = ma).

Newton’s Third Law:

For every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction.
Inertia:
the tendency of an object to resist changes
in its state of motion

Acceleration:
•a change in velocity
•a measurement of how quickly an object is
changing speed, direction or both

Velocity:
The rate of change of a position along
a straight line with respect to time

Force:
strength or energy
EXERCISE

1) A 20 kg object that can move freely is subjected to a resultant force of 45 N

in the x-direction. Find the acceleration of the object.

2) A constant force acts on a 5 kg object and reduces its velocity from 7 m/s to
3 m/s in 3 s. Find the force.
Friction
 Friction Forces
• Friction forces play an important part in many applications
of Newton’s Laws.

• Try one example:

Push very lightly against your textbook with a horizontal
force. The book does not move because it remains
stationary, we know that Fnet=0. Thus, at least one other
force must be acting opposite the force you are applying.

• This opposing force must be supplied by the table where it

contacts the book. We call this the force of static friction.
Friction Forces

• fk = kinetic force = moving object

• fs = maximum static friction force.

Reasons:
- The surfaces in contact are far from smooth.
- The jagged points from one surface penetrate
the valleys of the other surface, and this causes
the surfaces to resist sliding.
- Once sliding has begun, less force is required to
keep them moving than to start the motion.
• The direction of the friction force is always parallel
to the surfaces, but the magnitude of the force is
proportional to the magnitude of the normal force
to the surface

• fs = μsFN
• fk = μkFN
• FN or N is called the normal force (perpendicular to
the surface)

• μs is static coefficients of friction

• μk is kinetic coefficients of friction

• μs and μk vary widely depending on what the

surfaces are made of and how clean and dry they
are.
 Friction
Frictional Force
 Opposes motion between systems in contact
 Parallel to the contact surface
 Depends on the force holding the surfaces
together
 the normal force N and a constant:
coefficient of friction μ
 Static friction
 Frictional force without relative motion
 fs is less than or equal to μs N
 Kinetic friction
 Frictional force on an object in motion
Can be less than static friction
 fk = μ k N
 Surface friction
 Force of friction acts to oppose relative motion:
 Parallel to surface.
 Perpendicular to normal force
 It is determined (proportional to) normal force.

N y

F x
ma

fF
mg
friction force
Example 1
A 70 kg box is slid along the floor by a 400N force as shown. The coefficient of
friction between the box and the floor is 0.50 when the box is sliding. Find the
acceleration of the box.
Free Body Diagram:
Solution 400 N
Since the y – directed forces must balance:

Newton's Laws of Motion Applied 27

 Example 2
Two blocks having masses m1 = 300 g and m2 = 500 g are in contact with each
other on a horizontal surface as shown. The coefficient of friction between each
block and the table is 0.40. A horizontal force F is applied to m1.
a) What must be the value of F if the blocks are to have an acceleration of 200cm/s 2?
b) How large a force does m1 then exert on m2?
Free Body Diagram:
Solution
F m2
a) The blocks move
m1
together, so they
can be taken as one unit.

Newton's Laws of Motion Applied 28

Solving F – fk1 – fk2 = (m1 + m2)ax
We get:
and:
(The force required for an acceleration of 2 m/s2)

b) To calculate the force exerted by m1 on m2:

Consider Block m2 by itself:
It has the following forces acting on it (consider x-direction only):
Force Fb from Block m1
m2 fk2

Using Fx = m2ax

We get: and

Newton's Laws of Motion Applied 29

Coefficient of friction is 0.4. Find the acceleration of the box.
 Example 3
N T= 50 N
θ=500
μk = 0.2

M = 5 kg

A block is pulled along a horizontal x-axis with a force T = 50 N,

directed 50º above the horizontal as shown in the diagram above.
Find acceleration of the block M.

Draw free body diagram

Resolve T in x and y components: Tx=T cosθ ; Ty=T sinθ
Solve for y-component of force: No vertical motion: N + Ty = Mg
Solve for x-component of force: Fx = Tx – fs , with fk = μk N

Then use ax=Fx/m

 Inclined plane with Friction
 Consider  on an inclined plane, with an angle θ, with
respect to the horizontal.

FBD???

 In this case, the force provided by friction will depend on

the angle θ of the plane: because of the normal force (N).
 Example 1: If object is pushed upwards
 Example 2: If object slides down naturally
Angle is 50°. Coefficient of friction is 0.4.
Find acceleration of the object.

F = 50 N

m = 5 kg
 Quiz (3 marks)
The system below is pulled with a force F. Object m1 has a mass
of 8 kg whereas m2 is 10 kg. The coefficient of friction between
the objects and the plane surface is 0.4. Calculate the Force and
tension in rope required to pull the objects with an acceleration
of 0.5 m/s².
-END-
 Is the frictional force always opposite
to the moving direction?
 Friction keeps the car wheels from spinning in place
• You want the tires to roll, clock-wise to your view:
• Friction opposes to it
• The contact point is at rest - although the car is in motion
» What matters is the coefficient of static friction!
Consider Newton’s 3rd law:

Froad on car

Fcar on road
Froad on car is the actual force ON the car.
Static Friction sN is its maximum value

weight Maximum Static friction

( > Fcar on road for car not to spin in place!)
EXAMPLE: A block of mass “m” is at rest on a rough incline of angle “θ”. Find
the contact forces and the net contact force on the block.

A block on an incline Forces on the block

The forces on the block are: (i) its weight; (ii) normal force; and (iii) Friction force. These
forces are not concurrent (see above figure).

However, no turning effect is involved. We can, therefore, treat force system concurrent
with the "center of mass" of the block. In order to analyze the forces, we consider a
coordinate system as shown in the figure.
 Free body diagram
Forces are shown with block as a
point with concurrent forces

Since the block is at rest, the forces on the block are balanced :
∑Fx=mgsinθ−Ff=0
∑Fy=N−mgcosθ=0

There are two contact forces (i) normal force and (ii) friction. The friction is given by the first
equation : Ff=mgsinθ
The normal force is given by the second equation : N=mgcosθ
The net contact force is vector sum of two contact forces,
Fc = N + Fr
Hence, magnitude of net contact force is :
FC = [(N2+Ff2)]1/2 what if the block is
= [(mg cosθ)² + (mg sinθ)²] NOT at rest?????
=[(mg) 2(cos2θ+sin2θ) ]1/2
FC =mg