Grade IX FORCE AND LAWS OF MOTION Notes #2 Physics

Applications of Newton’s Second law of motion

Q: A Karate player breaks a pile of tiles or a slab of ice in a single blow. Give
reason.
A Karate player breaks a pile of tiles or a slab of ice in a single blow by moving
his hand very fast. By doing this, he increases the rate of change of momentum. So
according to Newton’s second law of motion, the net force delivered on the pile of
tiles ( or the slab of ice) will be large enough to break it in a single blow.
Q: In cricket, while catching a fast moving cricket ball, a fielder gradually pulls his
hands backwards with the moving ball. Why?
In cricket, the fielder pulls his hands backwards while taking the catch to decrease
the rate of change of momentum by increasing the time. (In doing so, the
momentum of the ball is reduced to zero in a comparatively longer interval of time.
So the rate of change of momentum is small.) As a result, according to Newton’s
second law of motion, the ball exerts a small force and the fielder does not hurt his
palms.
Newton’s Third law of motion:
Q: State Newton’s third law of motion.
Newton’ third law states that when one object exerts a force on another object,
the second object instantaneously exerts a force back on the first.
OR
To every action there an equal and opposite reaction; action and reaction
forces act on different bodies.
Q: Why does a gun recoil when a shot is fired from it?
This can be explained by using Newton’s third law of motion. When a gun is
fired, it exerts a forward force on the bullet. The bullet exerts an equal and opposite
reaction force on the gun. This results in the recoil of the gun .Since the gun has a
much greater mass than the bullet, the acceleration of the gun is much less than the
acceleration of the bullet.
Q: How does walking or running on the ground become possible?
This can be explained by using Newton’s third law. In order to walk, we
push our feet against the ground and thus exert action force in backward direction
obliquely. The ground exerts an equal force in opposite direction on your feet and
enable us to walk.
Q: How do jet airplanes and rockets work?
This is an application of Newton’s third law. In jet engines and rockets, the
fuel is burnt to produce a large quantity of hot gases. These hot gases come out of
the nozzle with great force (action) .These out coming gases exert an equal and
opposite force (reaction) on the jet engines/ rocket. Thus, jet airplanes/ rockets
move forward due to the reaction exerted by the out coming gases.
Q: How do a person move forward during swimming?
When a person swims, he pushes the water in the backward direction with
his hands (action). Due to the reaction, the water pushes the person in the forward
direction with equal force.
Q: When a jumps out of a boat to the bank of the river, the boat moves
backward (in opposite direction of man) Why?
The reason is that when the man steps out of the boat, he presses the boat in
backward direction (action force on the boat), in response to it the boat exerts a
reaction force on man in forward direction which enables him to move forward. As
the boat is floating on water, it moves backward.
Q: Why do the firemen have to hold the hose-pipe strongly?
When firemen direct a water stream on fire from a hose pipe(action), the
water stream exerts a reaction force in backward direction, so hose pipe has a
tendency to go backward. That is why the firemen have to hold hose pipe strongly.