Types of Forces

Introduction
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-ranges 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, Newton’s 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 w, there is an acceleration rw² towards the center, so by Newton's
second law the resultant force on the particle, called the centripetal force, is
mrw², 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.

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 = lkgms-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).
Types of Forces:
1. Contact forces:
Some types of contact forces are given in the list below:
 Applied force
 Normal force
 Frictional force
 Tension force
 Air resistance force
 Spring force

2. Non-contact forces or At a distance forces:

Some types of contact forces are given in the list below:
 Gravitational force
 Electromagnetic force
 Weak nuclear force
 Strong nuclear force