FORCES AND MOTION

The slope or gradient of the line tells us the speed of the car – the steeper the line the
greater the speed of the car. So in this example:
In Figure 1.7a the distance is not changing with time – the line is horizontal. This means that
the speed is zero.
In Figure 1.7b the graph shows how two objects are moving. The red line is steeper than the
blue line because object A is moving at a higher speed than object B.
In Figure 1.7c the object is speeding up (accelerating) shown by the graph line getting
steeper (gradient getting bigger).
In Figure 1.7d the object is slowing down (decelerating)
Some displacement–time graphs look like the one shown in Figure 1.7e. It is a straight line,
showing that the object is moving with constant speed, but the line is sloping down to the
right rather than up to the right. The gradient of such a line is negative because the distance
that the object is from the starting point is now decreasing – the object is going back on its
path towards the start. Displacement means ‘distance travelled in a particular direction’
from a specified point. So if the object was originally travelling in a northerly direction, the
negative gradient of the graph means that it is now travelling south.

A vector is a quantity that has both size and direction. Displacement is distance
travelled in a particular direction. Force is another example of a vector that you
will meet in Chapter 2. The size of a force and the direction in which it acts are
both important.
Acceleration is the rate at which objects change their velocity. It is defined as follows: k

Acceleration is the rate at which objects change their velocity. It is defined as

follows:

Acceleration, like velocity, is a vector because the direction in which the

acceleration occurs is important as well as the size of the acceleration.
We normally write this as m/s2 (read as ‘metres per second squared’). Other
units may be used – for example, cm/s2.
AREA UNDER A VELOCITY–TIME GRAPH GIVES DISTANCE TRAVELLED
FORCES AND SHAPE

1 Name the force that:

a causes objects to fall towards the Earth
b makes a ball rolled across level ground eventually stop
c stops a car sinking into the road surface.

Name the force that always opposes motion.

A. Electrostatic
B. Frictional force
C. Magnetic force
D. Muscular force

Friction:
1. Friction is the force that prevents one solid object from sliding or rolling over another.
2. Frictional forces, such as the traction required to walk without slipping, are beneficial,
but they also present a significant amount of resistance to motion.
If there is no Friction then:
1. Friction prevents objects from sliding apart.
2. Everything would slide to the lowest point if there was no friction.
3. It would be impossible to scale anything.
4. We will be unable to write without friction.
5. No riding a bike, cycle, or even a car or bus without friction.
6. There are no machines in businesses, so there are no mechanics without friction.
7. We would not have been able to sit, walk, run, or dance without friction
AIR RESISTANCE (DRAG FORCE) AND TERMINAL VELOCITY
Drag Force OR Air Resistance: An object moving through air experiences a force
that opposes its movement. This force is called air resistance or drag.
The size of the drag force acting on an object depends on its shape and its
speed. Cars are designed to have a low drag coefficient. The drag coefficient is a
measure of how easily an object moves through the air. High-speed trains have
an efficient streamlined shape so that air flows more smoothly around them.
Streamlined, smooth surfaces produce less drag.
It is particularly important to make fast-moving objects streamlined because the
drag force increases with the speed of the object. The fact that drag increases
with speed affects the way that dropped objects accelerate, because the faster
they move the greater the drag force opposing their motion becomes. Objects
falling through the air experience two significant forces: the weight force (that
is, the pull of gravity on the object) and the opposing drag force.