What Is Force?

You've probably heard of 'The Force,' but this isn't quite the same as a force. A force is a
push or pull on an object. This push or pull comes from the objects interacting with one
another and only from such interactions. Once the interaction stops, there is no longer any
force.

While forces come in pairs, there can be even more forces in an interaction. For example,
when you throw a ball into the air, the ball is experiencing the force of gravity, friction, and the
pushing force from you all at the same time!

Forces are important because, as we learned in another lesson, they are responsible for
changes in motion. In fact, Isaac Newton describes this in his first law. This law of inertia
states that an object continues in its state of rest or motion unless acted on by an outside
unbalanced force. So, your cat sleeping on the couch isn't likely to move unless you apply a
force (pushing on the cat).

Newton wasn't just great at scientific laws; he also got his own unit of measure! The standard
unit of force is the Newton, or N. So, for example, if something is 5 N, this means 5 Newton
force.

But force has both magnitude and direction, which makes it a vector quantity. The magnitude
of the force is how much, and the direction is in which way. So, in order to fully describe the
force, we would need to say the force is 5 N and in which direction (like downward or to the
left). As with any vector quantity, we show forces with arrows. The arrow's length represents
the magnitude, while the arrow's direction shows the direction of the force.

We can put forces into two different categories, contact and non-contact. Let's look at each
one more closely to get a better understanding of them.

Contact Forces
Contact forces are just what they sound like: forces that result from the interaction of two
objects in contact with each other. Forces that belong in this category are friction, air
resistance, normal force, applied force, tension force, and spring force.

Friction is a force that you are quite familiar with already. This force occurs when objects rub
against each other. The burn you feel on your skin when you go down a slide? Friction! Your
brake pads and rotors stopping your car? Friction again! Friction acts in a direction to oppose
motion - when you pull a bag across the floor to the right, the force of friction on the bag is to
the left.

Even objects falling downward through the air experience friction acting upward, this time
from the air. This special type of frictional force is called air resistance. It's the friction that
acts on an object as it moves through the air. Again, this force is in a direction opposite to the
direction of the object's motion.
There's a really important force that keeps us from falling through the floor called the normal
force. This is the upward force that balances the weight of an object (another force that we'll
talk about later) on a surface. If the object is at rest on a horizontal surface, the normal force
is the same as the object's weight. Gravity pulls you down, but the normal force pushes back
up on you from the floor.

An applied force is a force that is applied to an object by another object. If you push a box
across the floor, your force pushing on the box is the applied force. And remember how we
said before that you can have multiple forces acting at once? You better believe that in
addition to your applied force on the box, that box is also experiencing friction from the floor,
gravity pulling it down, and the normal force pushing it up - all at the same time!

Tension force is the tension through a string or other fully-stretched object. If you tie
something to a string and let it hang from your fingers, the tension force is the same for both
the object at the end of the string and your fingers holding that string.

Spring force is the force exerted by a compressed or stretched spring. This force acts on the
object that is compressing or stretching the spring. Push a spring together with your hands,
and I bet you'll feel that spring force being exerted!

Non-Contact Forces
If contact forces are forces from objects in contact with each other, it makes sense that non-
contact forces are forces that result when the two interacting objects are not in contact with
each other. Forces in this category include gravitational, magnetic, and electrical forces.

Remember weight from before? Simply put, this is the force due to gravity. Gravity is the force
of two particles pulling toward each other, which means they don't need to be in contact with
each other to feel the effect. Gravity is what pulls you back down to Earth if you're in the air -
you're certainly not in contact with the ground as you're racing toward it! It's also what keeps
planets, moons, and satellites in orbital paths.

Electric force is the attraction or repulsion between two charged objects. For example, there is
an electric force between the positive protons in an atom's nucleus and the electrons orbiting
around it. Though the protons and electrons aren't in physical contact, there is a non-contact
force pulling them toward each other.

You can easily see magnetic force when you put the ends of two magnets together. This is
the force exerted between two magnetic poles, and it can be a push or a pull. Put the north
end of one magnet to the south end of the other, and they pull together. But put both north
ends together, and you'll feel them repelling each other very strongly!

Lesson Summary
A force, which is a push or a pull, can come in different sizes, directions, and types. They are
the result of interactions between two objects. And while each object exerts a force on the
other, there may be other forces involved in the interaction as well.

Force is a vector quantity because it has magnitude and direction. When we describe a force,
we use the standard unit of measure, the Newton, as well as state which way the force is
acting.

Forces can be contact or non-contact. Contact forces are those that result from the interaction
of objects in contact with each other. These include things like friction, air resistance, applied
force, tension force, and spring force.

Non-contact forces are those that result from the interaction of objects not in contact with
each other. Gravity (or weight), electric force, and magnetic force are all forces that objects
may experience during an interaction where they're not physically touching.

Learning Outcomes
Work through this lesson in order to:

Indicate and describe Newton's first law

Determine why force is a vector quantity
Differentiate between contact and non-contact forces and provide examples of each

Motion
In order to be good at any sport, you have to be a master at force and motion. Let's look at
soccer, for example. Basically, you want the ball to move (this is motion) toward the goal. The
only way to get the ball to move toward the goal is to use your feet or head to get it there (this
is force). Let's break force and motion down further.

Motion: It's On the Move!

To the world of physics, motion is a change in position, or an object moving from one place to
another. Here are a couple of examples of motion: riding your bike from your house to your
friend's, pushing a box from one end of the room to the other, and traveling from the top of the
slide to the bottom.

The examples could go on and on--motion is happening all around us all the time. In fact, all
things are in constant motion when you think about them at the atomic level. That's because
atoms--the tiny particles you have to view with a microscope--are constantly moving back and
forth.
Gravity and Friction
Force Man may seem kind of boring compared to Superman or Spiderman, but Force Man
has some cool ways to push and pull.

One of the most obvious types of force that Force Man has to use is gravity. Gravity is the
force that pulls things to Earth. It's the reason why your friend falls to the ground when you
push him rather than just floating in the direction you push him. Gravity is caused by massive
objects, like the earth.

Force Man has friction power as well. Friction is the force of resistance when rubbing two
objects together. If you press your fingers across a smooth marble table, your finger won't
encounter much resistance. In other words, it will be fairly easy to move your fingers across it.
If you move your fingers across sandpaper, though, there's a lot more friction there, so it's
much harder to move your fingers across that. Force Man can make an incredible amount of
heat by rubbing his hands together. Go ahead and try it. Rub your hands together hard and
fast. You'll feel the heat of friction.

Electromagnetic and Elastic

One of Force Man's coolest powers is electromagnetic force. That's the force of magnetism
and electricity. What happens when you put two magnets together? They will either attract or
repel each other. That force that you feel is magnetism.

Force Man can act like a rubber band. This power is called elasticity or elastic force. This is
when something bent out of shape tries to go back to its original shape. Imagine an archer
pulling an arrow back in the string of their bow. What happens when they let go? The arrow
goes flying. The arrow was pushed forward by the force of the elastic in the string. The same
thing happens when you stretch a rubber band. You can feel it resisting the stretch and trying
to get back to its original relaxed state.

Tension
The last cool power that Force Man has is the power of tension. Not tension from being
nervous or stressed out, but tension from the pull from a rope or cable pulling an object. This
is perfectly displayed in that game of tug of war. Each team is using the force of tension to try
and pull the other team over the marker. Whichever team is using more tension force will pull
the other team and win.

Lesson Summary
A force is a push or a pull on an object. The stronger the force, the more effect it has on the
object on which the force is being applied. There are several different types of force, such as
gravity, the force that pulls things to the earth; friction, the force of resistance when rubbing to
objects together; electromagnetism, the force of magnetism and electricity; elastic force, when
something bent out of shape tries to go back to its original shape; tension, the pull from a rope
or cable pulling an object.
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