Lab: Newton's First Law Investigation

Purpose - Investigating Newton’s First Law of Motion.

Materials:
• PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder, Forces and Motion: Basics
simulation http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/forces-and-motion-basics/latest/forces-and-motion-
basics_en.html

Procedure:
1. Click on the link above. Click the Motion icon.

2. Ensure that the Force and Speed checkboxes in the upper right corner of the screen are
selected.

3. Apply a force of 100 N to the right on the crate. (Make sure that you watch the speedometer.)

Observation 1: As soon as 100 N of force is applied to the right, the crate accelerates and
velocity increases over time as it moves towards the right. As the Red man pulls the crate, it
accelerates until it’s brought to rest by the speed bump.

4. Reset the simulation. Ensure that the Force and Speed checkboxes are selected.

5. Apply a force of 100 N to the right on the crate. When the crate reaches about half of its
maximum speed as indicated by the speedometer, change the applied force to 0 N without
resetting the simulation.

Observation 2: The crate initially accelerates while it’s being pulled by the man by a force of 100
N. But as soon as the force is cancelled out (the man no longer pulls the crate), it doesn’t
accelerate anymore, instead it moves in a constant velocity with zero acceleration, until it’s again
stopped by the speed bump and velocity is thus zero.

6. Reset the simulation. Ensure that the Force and Speed checkboxes are selected.

7. Apply a force of 100 N to the left on the crate.

Observation 3: As soon as a force of 100 N from a blue man is applied towards the left, the crate
starts to accelerate towards the left while the velocity increases until it’s again put to rest by the
speed bump.

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7, but then try to stop the crate.

Observation 4: As soon as the crate is pulled by a force of 100 N towards the left by a blue man,
a red man is added on the right with a force of 100 N as well. Until the force on the right was
applied, the crate accelerated but as soon as 100 N of force as applied by the red man on the
right, it no longer accelerates but instead moves at a constant velocity as the resultant force is
zero (100 N LEFT = 100 N RIGHT). When another red man is added to pull with a force of 50 N,
the crate starts to decelerate until it reaches a velocity of zero. This happens because the net
 force is more towards the right. But after the crate stops, it starts to accelerate again
! But this time towards the opposite direction, due to the imbalance of forces.

Discussion
Newton's first law: An object with no net force acting on it remains at rest or moves with constant
velocity in a straight line.

Explain how your observations illustrate Newton's first law. (5 points)

When there was no man present to apply a force, the crate did not move because there was no net force.
But there were other forces acting on the crate as well! At any given time, any force is more or less acting
on all objects on Earth! Gravitational force was pulling the crate down while the normal reaction force
from the ground kept the crate not going into the ground these both forces cancel each other and thus the
crate is still. First Motion Law of Newton proven! Let’s now prove it again in a different way. Well, you saw
that the crate was rest with no man pulling either way and thus it was at rest as there was no net force or
unbalance of forces.

But when a guy from the blue team starts to pull the crate, it accelerates towards the left and continues to
accelerate until it’s stopped by the speed bump. This happens because there is new net force which is
the force applied by the pull of the blue man in there. Things like drag or air resistance and friction are not
considered in here, though. Those forces oppose the movement. If a red man is added on the right side
with the same amount of force, the crate will no longer accelerate but instead move in a constant velocity.
Acceleration is zero because there is no net force as the addition of a same amount of force on the right

This lab drew on the Introduction to Forces and Newton's Laws lab submitted by Michael Pennisi to PhET Interactive
Simulations. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/contributions/view/4118
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
have cancelled the left one and thus the forces are balanced.

This lab drew on the Introduction to Forces and Newton's Laws lab submitted by Michael Pennisi to PhET Interactive
Simulations. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/contributions/view/4118
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/