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Note 4: Newton’s Law of motion

0.1 Introduction
Today’s class we will discuss law of motion for a particle.
Which scientist’s name come to your mind in this regard? Sir Isaac New-
ton?
But, today we will first discuss ‘law of motion’ proposed by another great
scientist much before than Newton – Aristotle [384 BC - 322 BC]
[Of course, Aristotle’s law of motion is wrong. But it is important to
look back into the history to understand the evolution of scientific discovery.
During the time of Aristotle, mathematics was not too much developed. So
Aristotle presented his law of motion in languages.]

Figure 1: Particle moving in 1 dimension.

Aristotle observed that we need to apply external effort (force) to keep

the motion of an abject on any surface – more we apply the force more its
velocity. In other words, force (F~ ) is proportional to velocity (V~ ), i.e

F~ (t) = mV~ (t), (1)

F (t) = mẊ(t). (2)
X(t + ∆) − X(t)
F (t) = m . (3)
∆
Thus we have,
∆F (t)
X(t + ∆) = X(t) + . (4)
m
Therefore, if we know the position (state) of the particle X(t) at time t
and also know the force acting on it, then Aristotle’s law of motion (4)
uniquely/deterministically predicts its position X(t + ∆) in future. [Recall
that this is analogous to the examples of coin and die discussed in our first
lecture. Of course, form of the equation of motion is different here.]
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0.1.1 An example

Figure 2: Particle moving in 1 dimension.

Consider the system as shown in Fig.2. In this case, force is proportional
to the displacement from its equilibrium position X(0), i.e.
F = −kX, (5)
k is called the spring constant. From Aristotle’s law of motion we obtain,
∆kX(t)
X(t + ∆) = X(t) − ,
m
 
∆k
X(t + ∆) = X(t) 1 − . (6)
m
We can also study the same system by considering its potion states continuum.
In that case, we have
dX(t) k
= − X(t). (7)
dt m
[Go back to the third lecture. Which function remain same (up-to some
constant multiplication) under differentiation?]
Therefore, we have,
X(t) = A exp(−kt/m),
X(t) = X(0) exp(−kt/m). (8)
Thus both in discreet case [Eq.(6)] and in continuum case [Eq.(8)] state of
the system in future is completely deterministic.
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Drawback in Aristotle’s law of motion

Figure 3: Particle always ends up in the state X(0).

In the above example, note that the the particle always ends up at the
position X(0) whichever position X(t) it may start with. Therefore, if we are
limited with finite precision then given the present state of the position it is
not possible to retro-dict its past uniquely. Of course this will not be the case
if there is no bound on the precision (which is just an impractical case). In
other words, with finite precision limitation Aristotle’s law of motion is not
reversible in time.
[At this point you can pause a bit and try to think what Aristotle actually
missed. Hint: friction.]

0.2 Newton’s law of motion

May be all of you are familiar with the following expression:

F~ = m~a [f orce = mass × acceleration]. (9)

This is undoubtedly one of the most famous discovery of humankind – pop-

ularly known as Newton’s 2nd law [1643-1727]. Before analyzing this law we
will first discuss a simple but very important concepts.

0.2.1 Inertial Frames

A “frame of reference” is a standard relative to which motion and rest may
be measured. Any set of points or objects that are at rest relative to one
another enables us, in principle, to describe the relative motions of bodies. A
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frame of reference is therefore a device for the geometrical description of mo-

tion. A dynamical account of motion leads to the idea of an ‘inertial frame’
or a reference frame relative to which motions have distinguished dynami-
cal properties. For that reason an inertial frame has to be understood as a
spatial reference frame together with some means of measuring time, so that
uniform motions can be distinguished from accelerated motions. The laws of
Newtonian dynamics provide a simple definition.
Definition: An inertial frame is a reference-frame with a time-scale, rel-
ative to which the motion of a body not subject to forces is always rectilinear
and uniform, accelerations are always proportional to and in the direction
of applied forces, and applied forces are always met with equal and opposite
reactions.
It follows that, in an inertial frame, the center of mass of a closed system of
interacting bodies is always at rest or in uniform motion. It also follows that
any other frame of reference moving uniformly relative to an inertial frame
is also an inertial frame. For example, in Newtonian celestial mechanics,
taking the ‘fixed stars’ as a frame of reference, we can, in principle, determine
an (approximately) inertial frame whose center is the center of mass of the
solar system; relative to this frame, every acceleration of every planet can be
accounted for (approximately) as a gravitational interaction with some other
planet in accord with Newton’s laws of motion.

0.2.2 Newton’s law: 1 dimension

Let, for the time being, limit ourselves in 1 dimensional analysis:
F (t) = mẌ(t),
Ẋ(t + ∆) − Ẋ(t)
F (t) = m ,
∆
Ẋ(t + ∆) − Ẋ(t)
F (t) = m ,
 ∆ 
X(t + ∆) − X(t) X(t) − X(t − ∆)
F (t) = m − (10)
∆2 ∆2

∆2 F (t)
X(t + ∆) = + 2X(t) − X(t − ∆) (11)
m
Compare this law of motion (11) with Aristotle’s law (or the law discusses for
coin state in the Note-1). There is a subtle difference [You may pause here
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for a moment and try to think your own what is the difference].
In this case to know the state X(t + ∆) of the system in future we require
two pieces of information – its state at present X(t) and its state at once
instance time back X(t − ∆). You can think in a different way, if you have
the information of X(t) and X(t − ∆) you in-fact have the information about
its rate of change at time t, i.e. you know X(t)−X(t−∆)
∆ which is the velocity
Ẋ(t).

Figure 4: Phase space of a particle.

In other words, if we have two pieces of information, X(t) and Ẋ(t) and
know the force acting on the system then we can predict system state at future
using Newton’s law of motion. Let us define a quantity called momentum P (t)
of the particle which is given by,

P (t) = mẊ(t). (12)

Newton’s law, therefore, can be thought as combination of a pair of equation

F (t) = Ṗ (t) & P (t) = mẊ(t). (13)

Let us now try to analyze the predictive power of Newton’s law. For that we
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can see the above equation in discrete form:

P (t + ∆) − P (t) X(t + ∆) − X(t)
F (t) = & P (t) = m
∆ ∆
∆P (t)
P (t + ∆) = ∆F (t) + P (t) & X(t + ∆) = + X(t) . (14)
m

Therefore the state of the system (X(t + ∆), P (t + ∆)) in future is completely
predictable given the information of its state (X(t), P (t)) at present and given
the force acting on it (see Fig. 4).

0.2.3 Example
Let us analyze the same example as discussed with Aristotle’s law, i.e F (t) =
−kX(t). Thus we have
mẌ(t) = −kX(t). (15)
For simplicity, assume k = 1 and m = 1. Thus, our equation looks

Ẍ(t) = −X(t). (16)

Go back to Note-3. Which function has double derivative same with the
original function, but with a negative sign? [sin and cos functions]
As the general solution we have,

X(t) = A cos(t + B); (17)

where A, B are constant determined by initial value of the particles position

and momentum. Furthermore we have

P (t) = Ẋ(t) = −A sin(t + B), (18)

and hence we have

X 2 (t) + P 2 (t) = A2 = constant. (19)

Thus in phase space particle’s position as well as momentum exhibit oscilla-

tory motion (see Fig. 5).
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Figure 5: Phase space of a particle for F (t) = −X(t).

0.2.4 Time symmetry of Newton’s law

It is important to note that Newton’s law of motion (N) is time symmetric,
which is not the case for Aristotle’s law (N):

d2 X(t) dX (t)
N: m = F (t) ; A: m = F (t) (20)
dt2 dt
Replace t by −t in the the above equations.

Figure 6: Newton’s three laws– summary.

Homework: Have fun with the problems in the second chapter of Klepp-
ner & Kolenkow. Try to discuss among yourselves and with your tutors.