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3.1 Forces and motion

Balanced or unbalanced?
3 Forces and energy Look at any object that is not moving.
You may think that if an object is not moving,
no forces are acting to push, pull or twist it.
This is not true.
3.1 Forces and motion Look at the rock in the picture. The force of gravity
is pulling it toward the centre of the Earth. This force
is called its weight. The rock does not move toward contact force
In this topic you will: the centre of the Earth because the ground is pushing
up on the rock. This force is the contact force.
• understand what is meant by balanced and unbalanced forces
These two forces are balanced
balanced. This means the forces rock
• describe the effects of balanced forces on motion are equal in size and opposite in direction
direction.
• describe the effects of unbalanced forces on motion. There could be more than two forces acting on ground
the rock.
Getting started Key words Imagine the wind is blowing. The wind will push
the rock from one side. weight
Work in groups to discuss answers to these questions. balanced
Why does the rock not move sideways? The pushing The forces acting on the rock
1 What is the unit of force? change direction force from the wind is balanced by friction between
direction the rock and the ground.
2 How are forces shown on diagrams? contact force
force These forces can be shown in a force diagram. In a
3 One or more forces always act on any object on Earth. Is this true? opposite force diagram, the arrows show the size and direction
slow down of each force. The longer the arrow, the bigger rock
unbalanced the force. So, when you draw a force diagram with
wind friction
balanced forces, make sure the arrows are the same
length and point in opposite directions. ground

Starting to move
weight

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Imagine the rock is now pushed with a much larger
force than the wind, such as a large vehicle. The forces acting on the rock when the wind
is blowing
When the vehicle pushes on the rock, the pushing
force will be larger than friction.

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