Newton's First Law of motion
states that "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."
Objects tend to "keep on doing what they're doing." In fact, it is the natural tendency of objects to resist changes in their state of motion.
This tendency to resist changes in their state of motion is described as
inertia.
Thus, the law states that every particle in the universe exerts a
force on every other particle along the line joining their centers. The magnitude of the force is directly
proportional to the product of the masses of the two particles, and inversely proportional to the square of
the distances between them.
Inertia: The resistance an object has to a change in its state of motion.
Friction
Galileo, a premier scientist in the seventeenth century, developed the concept of inertia.
Galileo reasoned that moving objects eventually stop because of a force called
Friction.
A surface can always supply a normal force, perpendicular to the surface.
However, a surface quite often also supplies a fiction force parallel to the plane.
Friction forces always oppose the motion -- or prevent the motion.
Think of pulling on a block to the right with an external force F as shown aside.
We know gravity pulls down with a force w, the weight of the block. From the y-components of F = m a,
we have seen that the plane responds by exerting a normal force n . But the surface also responds by exerting a parallel force, fs;
this is the force of static friction. When we first push on this block it does not move; it is held in place by this force of static friction.
No matter how smooth the surfaces of the block and the plane appear at first glance, if we look at them under a microscope,
we find they are quite rough.
But there is some maximum value of this force of static friction. If we increase the external force F,
the block finally breaks loose and starts to move to the right.
Now the forces on it are as shown in this sketch:
The surface exerts a force of kinetic friction that is labeled fk. "kinetic" simply means "moving"; This is the friction force once the block is in motion. This force of kinetic friction is less than the maximum value of the force of static friction; That is
fk < fs
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The
Newton's Second Law of Motion states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables - the net
force acting upon the
object and the
mass of the object. The acceleration of an object depends directly upon the net force acting upon the object,
and inversely upon the mass of the object. As the force acting upon an object is increased, the acceleration of the object is increased.
As the mass of an object is increased, the acceleration of the object is decreased.
Newton's Second Law of Motion can be formally stated as follows:
The acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of
the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object.
This verbal statement can be expressed in equation form as follows:
a = F / m
The above equation is often rearranged to a more familiar form as shown below.
The net force is equated to the product of the mass times the acceleration.
F = m * a
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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.
Formally stated, Newton's third law is:
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.
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