Name ___________________________________ Date ____________________ Class______________

Newton’s Laws of Motion Quiz

Circle the letter of the best answer for each question.
1. Which is NOT an example of an object at rest?
a. a golf ball on a tee c. a chair on a floor
b. a jet flying overhead d. a picture on a wall
2. When will objects at rest NOT stay at rest?
a. when there is no horizontal motion
b. when there is no vertical motion
c. when there is no friction
d. when objects are acted upon by unbalanced forces
3. What happens to your motion when the bumper car you’re riding in is hit?
a. Your motion stops.
b. Your motion continues with less velocity.
c. Your motion continues with the same velocity.
d. Your motion continues with greater velocity.
4. Why will the soccer ball you kick come to a stop on its own?
a. It is stopped by friction. c. It is stopped by gravity.
b. You haven’t kicked it hard enough. d. The ball is worn out.
5. Why can’t a car, plane, or bicycle stop immediately?
a. air resistance c. inertia
b. friction d. gravity
Mass and Inertia
6. Why is it easier to stop a bicycle than a car?
a. The bicycle has smaller mass and more inertia.
b. The bicycle has smaller mass and thus has less inertia.
c. The car has greater mass and thus less inertia.
d. The car is harder to drive.
7. Why does it take more force to accelerate a full grocery cart than an empty one?
a. The full cart has more mass. c. The empty cart has more mass.
b. The full cart is harder to steer. d. You run into air resistance.
8. If you give a cart a harder push, what happens to its acceleration?
a. It decreases. c. It stays the same.
b. It increases. d. It varies.
9. Why is a watermelon harder to accelerate than an apple?
a. The watermelon is harder to grip. c. You can hold an apple in one hand.
b. The apple has greater mass. d. The watermelon has greater mass.
10. Which of the following is the equation for Newton’s second law of motion?
a. F = m + a c. F = m x a
b. F = m/a d. F = g/t
11. Which is a simple way to describe Newton’s third law of motion?
a. Acceleration depends on the force applied to a mass.
b. All forces act in pairs.
c. An object at rest remains at rest unless acted on by a force.
d. A moving object remains in motion at constant speed unless acted on by a force.
12. What would happen if the action and reaction forces acted on the same object?
a. The object would move in the direction of the action force.
b. The object would move in the direction of the reaction force.
c. The result cannot be predicted.
d. The forces would cancel and the object does not move.
13. What is the reaction force pushing on a jumping rabbit’s legs?
a. friction c. Earth pushing upwards
b. gravity d. The rabbit pushing on Earth
Name ___________________________________ Date ____________________ Class______________
14. During a space shuttle take off, what is the reaction force that sends it into space?
a. Earth’s gravity
b. the shuttle’s thrusters pushing on exhaust gases
c. the gases pushing downward
d. the gases pushing the shuttle upward.
15. Why doesn’t the bat move backwards, when the ball hits it?
a. Because the bat exerts an action force on the ball.
b. Because the ball exerts a reaction force on the bat.
c. Because the batter exerts another force on the bat.
d. Because the ball flys off the bat.
16. When you drop a ball, what is the action force on the ball?
a. the ball’s gravity c. friction between the ball and Earth
b. Earth gravity d. your weight
17. When you drop a ball, what is the reaction force on the Earth?
a. the ball’s gravity c. friction between the ball and Earth
b. Earth’s gravity d. your weight
18. Which of the following objects has the greatest acceleration?
a. an empty shopping cart pushed with a light force
b. an empty shopping cart pushed with a hard force
c. a full shopping cart pushed with a light force
d. a full shopping cart pushed with a hard force
Instructions: Each of the items below is best represented by one of the Newton’s Laws of Motion. Write a 1,
2 or 3 for each of the following to infer whether it’s Newton’s 1 st, 2nd or 3rd law.
19. ______A climber pulls down on a rope causing his body to lift upward and rise along the rope.
20. ______Force= Mass x Acceleration
21. ______Two bumper cars collide into each other and each car jolts backwards
22. ______When you give your friend a lift on your bike you have to pedal harder and faster to keep the same
speed (acceleration) as you had when you were on your bike alone
23. ______For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
24. ______A smaller cannon ball leaves a cannon much faster than a larger, heavier cannon ball fired at the same
time.
25. ______When you are standing in a subway train and the train suddenly stops but your body continues to move
forward.
26. ______It is much easier to carry your backpack when it is empty rather than when it’s full of textbooks.
27. ______A boy is going down a slide. As he reaches the bottom, friction causes him to slow down and stop.
In the space provided, calculate the force, mass, or acceleration using Newton’s 2 nd law of motion.
28. A roller coaster pushes a 25 kg person upward with a force of 300 N. What is the acceleration?

29. An object of mass 10 kg is accelerated upward at 2 m/s 2. What force is required?

30. What is the mass of an object if a force of 17 N causes it to accelerate at 1.5 m/s/s?