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Forces
Types of forces
Force is the external agent that produces motion. Basically, there are two main types of
forces, contact forces, and non-contact forces. Gravitational forces, electric forces,
magnetic forces, nuclear forces, frictional forces are some examples of force.
In this Post, You Are going to learn about the Force Types in detail.
This Post also Includes a Lot of:
• Real-life examples of force
• Kinds of force
• Applications of force
• Effects of force
• Lots more
So If You If you Want to Get Great results from This post, You’ll Love this Post.
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What is Force?
A force that moves or tends to move stops or tends to stop the motion of the object. The
force can also change the direction of the motion of an object. It can also change the
shape or size of the body on which it acts. Being a vector quantity it has magnitude as
well as direction.
In classical physics, real forces are defined by a set of axioms, Newton’s laws of motion,
with reference to an inertial reference frame. By Newton’s second law the resultant force
F acting on a body of constant mass m is equal to ma, where a is the acceleration of a.
Force is a vector quantity.
Forces are either long-range or short-range. Long-range forces, such as gravitation and
the Coulomb force, fall off less rapidly than the inversion fourth power of the distance,
short-range forces, such as those inside the atomic nucleus and those between molecules,
fall off more rapidly than the inverse fourth power. It can be shown that in a condensed
body, short-range forces are small at distances not much greater than those of near
neighbors.
Some workers find it convenient to use fictitious forces in analyses. There are two kinds
of forces, inertial forces, and inertial forces.
An inertia force is a fictitious force that is supposed to act on a body, being equal and
opposite to the resultant of the real forces. Since it does not represent any actual
interaction, an inertia force does not obey newton’s third law. According to the principle
of d’Alembert (1742), any accelerated body can be treated as if it were in equilibrium
under the action of the real forces and the fictitious one.
When a problem is considered from the point of view of an observer who is accelerated
with respect to an inertial reference frame, Newtons’ laws are not applicable to real
interactions. It is possible to apply these laws in such a case by introducing a fictitious
force.
In particular, an observer on a rotating body may use an inertial force called a Coriolis
force, which is supposed to act at right angles to the path of a body that moves towards
or away from the axis of rotation. Problems with projectiles and movements of the
atmosphere and oceans are often treated in this way.
When a particle of mass m moves in a circular arc of radius r with uniform angular
velocity ω, there is an acceleration rω² towards the center, so by Newton’s second law the
resultant force on the particle, called the centripetal force, is mrω², acting radially inward.
In the system of Alembert there is a fictitious inertia force on the equal to this, supposedly
acting radially outwards. Also, an observer orbiting with the particle could introduce an
inertial force that would be, in this case, equal and opposite to the centripetal force. Both
fictitious forces may be called centrifugal forces since they are directed away from the
center.
Now the centripetal force is real, so there must be an equal and opposite real force acting
on another body, by Newton’s third law. This real force is also often called a centrifugal
force.
In kinematics, we have studied the changes in motion only. Our understanding of the
changes in motion is of little value without knowing its causes. The branch
of mechanics that deals with the study of the motion of an object and the cause of its
motion are called dynamics.
In this section, we shall study momentum and investigate what causes a change in the
motion of a body and what role the mass of the body plays in its motion. This inquiry
leads us to the concept of force. We shall also study Newton’s laws of motion and their
applications.
Newton’s laws of motion are of fundamental importance in understanding the causes of
motion of a body. Before we discuss newton’s laws, it is appropriate to understand
force, inertia, and momentum.
SI units for force
The SI unit of force is newton denoted by N.According to newton’s second law of motion:
“One newton (1 N) is the force that produces an acceleration of one meter per second
square in a body of mass 1 kg. Thus, a force of one newton can be expressed as:
1N = 1kg 1ms-2
1N = Ikgms-2
Two other systems of units in common use are the cgs (centimeter-gram-second) and the
British systems. In the cgs system, the unit of force is dyne and is equivalent to the g cms-
2 .Since 1kg=1000 g and 1ms-2=100 cms-2,it follows that 1N =105 dyne.A dyne is a very small unit,
roughly equal to the weight of a cubic millimeter of water. (A newton, on the other hand, is about the weight
of a half cup of water).
In the British system, force is measured in pounds and acceleration in ft/s2.In this system,
the mass that is accelerated at 1ft/s2 by a force of 1 lb is called the slug (from the word
sluggish, meaning slow or unresponsive).
Table of the unit of force in different systems of unit.
System Unit of force
SI Newton (N)
Cgs Dyne
British Slug
Other variants on these basic systems are occasionally found, but these three are by far
the most common.
1. Contact forces
2. Non-contact forces or At a distance forces
• Contact forces
Those forces represent the result of physical contact between two objects, where one of
the objects exerts a force on the other.
• Applied force
• Normal force
• Frictional force
• Tension force
• Air resistance force
• Spring force
• Applied force
Force due to the action of muscles is called applied force. It is also called muscular force.
Normal force
Frictional Force
It is a contact interaction force between surfaces. It always acts perpendicular to the
surfaces and out of the surface. It comes from the microscopic deformation of molecules
modeling a system of springs.
Frictional Force
Frictional force comes from interactions with a surface as an object moves or tries to move
relative to the surface.
Tension force:
An applied force where force is applied through a string, cable, rope, etc..
tension force
Note that a tension force can only pull, it cannot push. We usually assume the tension in
a cable is the same everywhere in the cable.
Spring force:
Spring force comes from the displacement of molecules. It is always opposite the
displacement of spring.
Spring Force
Noncontact forces
Those forces do not involve physical contact between the two objects but act through the
space between the two.
• Gravitational force
• Electromagnetic force
• Weak nuclear force
• Strong nuclear force
The gravitational force of attraction:
Gravitational Force
The attractive force exerted between two objects is called gravitational force. It originates
with the presence of matter.
Electromagnetic force:
Electrostatic Force
The electromagnetic force includes basic electric and magnetic interactions and is
responsible for the binding of atoms and the structure of solids.
Magnetic force
Weak nuclear force:
The weak nuclear force causes certain radioactive decay processes and certain reactions
among the most fundamental particles.