Bombay Scottish School, Mahim

Std. 8

Physics

Laws of Motion
Learning Objectives :

* Force & Classification of force, Its S.I. and C.G.S. Units

* Newton’s 1st Law of Motion : Statement, Concept of inertia, Relationship between mass
and inertia, Different kinds of inertia with examples to illustrate Newton’s 1st Law of
motion.
* Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion: Statement, Concept of action – reaction (pair)forces,
examples based on action – reaction forces

Force & Classification of force

Definition : A force is that physical quantity which changes (or tends to change) either the size
or the shape or the state of rest or of motion of body.
It is a vector quantity as it is defined by magnitude and direction.
Its S.I. unit is N(newton) and C.G.S. unit is dyne. It is also measures in terms of force due to
gravity i.e. kgf.

Contact Force : The forces acting between two objects by making a physical contact are termed
as contact forces.
Examples: 1) Frictional force 2) Normal reaction force 3) Tension force applied
through strings 4) Muscular force 5) Force exerted during the collision
Non-Contact Force : The forces experienced by two objects even without being physically
touched are termed as non-contact force.
Examples: 1) Gravitational force 2) Electrostatic force 3) Magnetic force

Newton’s 1st Law of Motion

Statement : According to Newton’s first law of motion, if a body is in a state of rest, it will
remain in the state of rest Or uniform motion (and if it is in the state of motion, it will remain
moving in the samedirection with the same speed) unless an external unbalanced force is applied
on it.

Example: 1) A book lying on a table top will remain in its placed unless some force displaces it.
2) A ball rolling on a horizontal plane keeps on rolling unless the force of friction
between the ball and the plane stops it.

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Newton’s first Law can be understood in the following two parts :

i) Definition of inertia:
The inherent property of an object by virtue of which it neither changes its state nor it tends to
change the state, is called inertia.
ii) Definition of force:
Force is that external cause which tends to change the state of rest or the state of uniform motion
of an object.

Relationship between Mass and Inertia :

Every object possess inertia due to its mass. Greater the mass of an object, greater is inertia of an
object. i.e. inertia is directly proportional to mass of an object.
Thus mass is a measure of inertia.
Examples:
1) When we kick a football, it flies a long way but at the same time if we kick a stone of the
same size, it hardly moves, as the stone resists a change in its motion better than the
football because of its more mass.
2) Cricket ball is more massive than a tennis ball. In case when they are moving with the
same velocity, it is more difficult to stop a cricket ball compared to a tennis ball.

Different kinds of inertia:

There are two kinds of inertia:

i) Inertia of rest ii) Inertia of motion

i) Inertia of rest :
If a body is at rest, it will remain at rest unless an external force is applied to change its
state of rest. This property of an object is termed as inertia of rest.
Examples :
1) When a bus suddenly starts moving forward, the passenger standing in the bus tends to
fall backward. The reason is that the lower part of the passenger’s body is in close contact
with the bus. As the bus starts moving, the lower portion of the body gets jerked forward,
but at a same time the upper part of the body due to inertia of rest remains at rest at the
same place. Hence the lower part of the body moves ahead and the upper part is left
behind, consequently the passenger tends to fall backwards.
2) On shaking the branches of a tree, the fruits fall down.
The reason is that when the branch of the tree is shaken, it gains motion, but the fruits
due to inertia of rest remain in a state of rest. Thus ripe or weakly attached fruits get
detached from the branch and fall down due to gravity.
(Note : Similarly you can explain the remaining examples)
3) When a hanging carpet is beaten with a stick, the dust particles start falling out of it.
4) On striking the coin at the bottom of a pile of carom board coins with a striker, coin at the
bottom only moves away, while the rest of the pile remain intact due to inertia of rest.
5) When a smooth card placed over the mouth of a tumbler is flicked sharply in the
horizontal direction, the card flies away, but the coin kept over the card falls into the
tumbler.
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ii) Inertia of motion :

A body in a state of motion, continues to be in the state of motion with the same speed in
the same direction in a straight line unless an external unbalanced force is applied on it to
change the state. This property of an object is termed as the inertia of motion.
Example:
1) When a running car stops suddenly, the passenger tends to lean forward. The reason is
that in a running car, the whole body of the passenger is in the state of the motion. When
the car stops suddenly, the lower part of the body being contact with the car, comes to
rest immediately but upper part remains in the state of motion due to inertia.
inertia Hence the
body leans forward.
2) When a passenger jumps ou out of a moving train, he falls down. The reason is for that his
whole body is in state of motion with the running train. On jumping out of a running train,
as soon as his feet touch the ground, the lower part of the body comes to rest immediately.
But the upper part of the bod
body still remains in motion due to inertia.. As a result, he falls in
thee direction of motion of the train.
(Note: Similarly you can explain the remaining examples)
3) A cyclist riding along a level road does not come to rest immediately after he stops `
pedalling.
4) A ball thrown vertically upward by a person in a moving train comes backs to his hand.

Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion :

Statement: Newton’s third law of motion states that, to every action there is always an equal and
opposite spontaneous reaction.

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Properties of action-reaction forces:

i) The action and reaction forces never act on the same body, but they always act
simultaneously on two different bodies.
ii) Action-reaction forces are always present in pair.
iii) These two forces are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction, but still they do not
cancel each other as these forces do not act on the same body.

Examples :
1) When an object is placed on a platform, it exerts a force equals to its weight W (Action) on
platform in downward direction and the platform balances it by an equal and opposite force
called the reaction R acting vertically upwards on the object.

2) When a boatman wants to move the boat away from the shore, he pushes the shore with
his oar (action). The shore pushes the boatman along with boat away from the shore with
equal and opposite force (reaction).
3) When a shooter fires a bullet from a rifle, a force F is exerted on the bullet (action) and
the gun experiences an equal and opposite reaction (recoil).

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4) Rocket Motion: In a rocket, fuel is burnt inside the rocket and the burnt gases at high
pressure and high temperature are expelled out of the rocket trough the nozzle. Thus,
rocket exerts a force F (action) on gases to expel them through nozzle backwards. The
outgoing gases exert an equal and opposite force (reaction) on the rocket due to which
it moves against gravity in the upward direction.

5) When we apply a force F (action) backward by foot on the ground against the force of
friction, the ground exerts an equal and opposite force R (reaction) forward on our foot,
thus enabling us to walk forward.

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6) While diving from a platform a swimmer has to exert a force (action) on the platform so
he gets an appropriate jerk (reaction)in the opposite direction.

7) While catching a ball, the ball exerts a force (action) on the hand of player and the player
exerts an equal force (reaction) on the ball to stop it.