The Great Plebeian College

Pre-Elem and Elementary Department

Alaminos City, Pangasinan

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4

Chapter 9: Force

What is force?

What forces do you think are acting on you right now while you’re sitting on your seat?

There are forces acting on you all the time whether you know it or not!
 Gravity is pulling you down
 The ground is pushing you up
 Air is squeezing you from every direction
 Your body is pushing back at the air

A force is a push or pull needed to start an object moving or to make things change their motion.
Motion is the action of changing position or location. It is a movement needing a force to act upon it.
Forces and motion make things move and stay still.

When a force is applied to an object the following can happen:

 a stationary object moves
 the speed of an object increases
 an object changes direction
 a moving object stops moving

PUSH OR
PULL?
Stand up and mime each of the following actions. Think and decide if you are pushing or pulling. Or can
you do both?

Kicking a ball

Closing a door Opening a door

LET’S THINK!
What is the importance of force in our daily life?
MEASURING FORCE

Force can be measured using a force meter or force measurer.

A force meter contains a spring that connects to a hook.
When the spring stretches, a force is applied to the hook.
It only shoes that the bigger the force applied, the more the spring stretches
and a result, the larger the reading. The unit of force is Newton, and it has the symbol N. (ex. 100N is a
bigger force than 5N.)

The mass of an object is a measure of the

object's inertial property, or the amount of matter
it contains. The weight of an object is a measure
of the force exerted by gravity, or the force
needed to support it. A weighing scale is a
device to measure weight or mass. Kilogram is
the unit of mass. To tell your weight, multiply your mass to acceleration
m
due to gravity, which is about 10 2 everywhere on Earth.
s

Example: If you weigh 50 kg, here is how much force (weight) Earth exerts on you.

F= m x g
m
F= kg x
s2
F= Newton (N)

m
F= 50 kg x 10
s2
m
F= 500 newton (N) or 500 kg
s2

Let’s try!
 Measure your own weight using the weighing scale and convert
it to Newton using the formula:

Force (N) =mass (m) x gravitational acceleration (g)

BALANCED AND UNBALANCED FORCES

Balanced forces do not cause a change in motion and when two or more forces acting on an object are
equal in all directions. Suppose you are pushing a wall and as expected, the wall does not move and
neither do you. It only means that you and the wall are exerting a balanced force on each other.

An illustration of a man
pushing against the wall.

Unbalanced forces cause a change in motion. It is not equal in size and/or direction and when two or
more unequal forces act on an object.

One person significantly heavier than the

other creates a condition of unbalanced
force in a seesaw.
This image shows two people on a seesaw. The person on the right is significantly heavier than the
person on the left and the seesaw is effectively tilted towards him. This is an example of unbalanced
forces.

Let’s do it! Identify which is balanced or unbalanced.

a. Pushing a wall
b. ball moves from one place to another after kicking it
c. Pushing a moving cart
d. Both sides of a tug-of-war do not move
e. Sliding down a ramp

EFFECTS OF
FORCES
Forces can stop or start an object moving, or change its direction. They can also change an object’s
shape.

*motion
Get a ball and place it on the floor.

How can you move the ball? We can move this ball by
pushing it. Now, try to push it harder. What happens when
you apply more force on the ball? The ball moved faster and
it only shows that the greater the force, the greater the
distance covered by the object. So, force can make a
moving object move faster.

*shape
Get a rubber band.

Try to stretch it softly. Does the shape of the rubber band

change when stretched? Yes. So now, we can say that force
can change the shape of an object.

Get a kitchen sponge and try to squeeze it.

What happens when you squeeze it? Its shape has changed. We apply
force on squeezing it that’s why it changes its shape. How about when we
release it? It regains its original shape. So what does it show? It only
shows that some objects regain their shapes on removal of force.

*direction
How about a moving bicycle?

A moving bicycle changes its direction when a force is

applied to steer its handle. When you steer the handle of
your bike to the left, the direction of your bicycle will go or
turn to your left. And when you steer the handle to the right,
the direction of your bicycle will turn to your right.

Make a Move! Follow the instructions and answer the following questions.

 Place a coin on the table.

 Observe the position of the coin.
  First, push the coin gently. Note the new position as well as the distance covered by the coin.
 Second, push the coin with more force.

Question: What difference do you observe in the two cases?

 Get a ball of clay.

 Press it with hands inside a mold.

Question: What happen when you press the clay ball with your hands?

(its shape changes.)

Question: Does it return to its original shape when hands are removed?

HELLO GRADE 4!

I AM YOUR TEACHER MARJORIE

AND I WILL BE YOUR TEACHER FOR TODAYS LESSON.

AT THE END OF THE LESSON, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:

 IDENTIFY FORCES AROUND YOU,
 EXPLAIN HOW FORCES ARE MEASURED
AND
 PERFORM SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION
ON THE EFFECTS OF FORCES

multiply your mass to acceleration due to

m
gravity, which is about 10 s 2

 do not cause a change in motion

 two or more forces on an object are
equal in all directions

 cause a change in motion

 not equal in size and/or direction