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How can forces be represented?

The forces acting on any object can be shown using a force diagram. A force diagram uses labelled arrows to show all the forces acting on the object. air The direction of each arrow shows resistance the direction of each force. The length of each arrow is proportional to the size of the force.

What is the force diagram for this ball when it first starts to fall?
Forces are measured in newtons (N)
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What forces act on a swimming fish?

What forces are acting on this fish as it swims at a constant speed? upthrust thrust friction

weight Upthrust is the upwards force on the fish caused by the water around the fish. This is sometimes called buoyancy. Thrust is the forwards force created by the fish.
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What forces act on a moving boat?

What forces are acting on this accelerating boat? air resistance

upthrust

thrust

friction

weight

Air resistance is friction caused by movement through air.

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Identifying forces

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What are resultant forces?

There are usually several different forces acting on an object. The overall motion of the object will depend on the size and direction of all the forces.

The motion of the object will depend on the resultant force. This is calculated by adding all the forces together, taking their direction into account.

50 N

30 N

Resultant force on the crate = 50 N 30 N = 20 N to the left

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Calculating resultant forces

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What is friction?
What is friction and why is it an important force?

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What is friction?
Friction is a resistive force that slows things down and tries to stop objects sliding past each other.

friction

pulling force

Friction always acts in the opposite direction to which an object is moving or trying to move.

What would happen if friction didnt exist?

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Friction useful or a problem?

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What causes friction?

Friction occurs between two objects because the surfaces of those objects are rough, and contain bumps and hollows. This roughness means that a force is needed to move the two objects over each other.

Even objects that appear very smooth, such as polished metal or ice, have a rough surface if viewed under a microscope.
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Different types of friction

Friction is most obvious when it acts between two solid objects, but it also acts between solid objects and gases, and between solid objects and liquids. Friction caused by an object moving through air is called air resistance.

Friction caused by an object moving through a liquid, such as water, is called drag.
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How does friction change?

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Reducing the effects of friction

Friction always tries to stop things moving or slow things down. What effect does this have? Friction creates heat and eventually wears down surfaces, which can be very damaging. Lubricants are used to reduce friction in machinery and so help protect surfaces. In car engines, oil is used as a lubricant. Bearings and rollers can also be used to reduce friction, for example, in wheels
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Reducing the impact of air resistance

Friction caused by air resistance affects the speed and fuel consumption of vehicles such as cars, bikes and aeroplanes.

Vehicles are specially shaped, or streamlined, to enable air to flow past them as easily as possible, therefore reducing air resistance. Which of these cars is the most streamlined?

In a similar way, ships and boats have streamlined hulls to reduce the drag effects of water.
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Introducing balanced forces

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What is Newtons first law?

If the resultant force acting on an object is zero, all the forces are said to be balanced.

This forms the basis of Newtons first law of motion, which states: If the forces on an object are balanced, the object will continue to do what it is already doing:
if the object is stationary, it will remain stationary if the object is moving, it will continue to move at the same speed and in the same direction.

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Terminal velocity of a skydiver

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Velocitytime graph of skydiver

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Introducing unbalanced forces

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What is Newtons second law?

If the resultant force acting on an object is not zero, all the forces are said to be unbalanced.

This forms the basis of Newtons second law of motion, which states:
If the forces on an object are unbalanced, two things about the object can change: the speed of the object may change it may either increase or decrease

the direction of motion may change.

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How is movement calculated from force?

The resultant force acting on an object is related to the objects mass and acceleration. These three factors are linked by the following equation: force = mass x acceleration

Resultant force is measured in newtons (N).

Mass is measured in kilograms (kg). Acceleration is measured in metres per second per second (m/s2).

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How do we use Newtons second law?

A car has a mass of 1,000 kg. What force must the cars engine supply to cause an acceleration of 2 m/s2?

force = mass x acceleration = 1,000 x 2 = 2,000 N

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Using a formula triangle

A formula triangle helps you to rearrange a formula. The formula triangle for force (f), mass (m) and acceleration (a) is shown below. Cover the quantity that you are trying to work out, which gives the rearranged formula needed for the calculation. So to find force (f), cover up f which gives the formula

f = mxa

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How do we use Newtons second law?

A lorry has a mass of 12,000 kg. What acceleration is caused by a force of 10,000 N?

force = mass x acceleration

acceleration = force mass = 10,000 12,000 = 0.83 m/s2

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F = ma calculations

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What forces support objects?

What forces are acting on Mels computer? The computer is pulled downwards by the force of gravity and causes it to have weight. The table exerts an equal and opposite force pushing upwards on the computer. This is called the reaction force. weight

reaction force

These forces are balanced so the computer does not move. What forces are acting on Mel as she works at her computer?
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What is Newtons third law?

A force cannot exist on its own there is always a second force acting against it.

This forms the basis of Newtons third law of motion states, which states: If object A exerts a force on object B, then object B exerts an equal but opposite force on object A.
These pairs of forces that act between two objects are sometimes called actionreaction pairs.

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Actionreaction pairs

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Balanced and unbalanced forces

How many pairs of balanced, unbalanced and actionreaction forces can you spot?

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Glossary (1/2) air resistance A frictional force that acts against an

object moving through air.

balanced A pair of opposing forces that are the same

size and which have no effect on an objects speed or direction.

drag A frictional force that acts against an object moving

through liquid.

friction A force between two touching objects that tries

to oppose movement.

reaction force The opposing force created by an

object in response to another force.
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Glossary (2/2) resultant force A single force that has the same effect
as all the forces acting on an object added together.

terminal velocity The velocity of a falling object

reached when its weight and air resistance are balanced and it no longer accelerates.

unbalanced A pair of opposing forces that are different

in size and which cause an object to change its speed or direction.

upthrust An upwards force acting on an object in a

liquid or a gas.

weight The force created by the gravitational attraction

on a mass, measured in newtons (N).
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Anagrams

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The effect of resultant forces

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Examples of the first law?

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Multiple-choice quiz

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