Chapter 2: Forces and Shape

Alignment with Student Book: pages 18–27

Chapter overview

This chapter covers the basic idea that forces can be balanced or unbalanced and may affect the
shape of an object. The types of forces acting on objects and the idea of free body force diagrams
are introduced though they are not explicitly identified. The idea of vectors is continued in this
chapter reinforcing the ideas introduced in Chapter 1. Through looking at forces acting on objects,
the term resultant force is explained. The principles of Newton’s first and second laws are also
described but there are no calculations relating to F = ma in this chapter. Discussion about the effect
of forces such as friction and those that change shape are the main ideas in this chapter. Students
will learn about Hooke’s law through practical application. This is predominantly a theory based
chapter with very few calculations.

The basics of this chapter will have been encountered in KS3 so will not be entirely new. New terms
such as vector and resultant will need reinforcement before moving onto Chapter 3 where students
learn to calculate resultant forces. It is worth spending time on free body force diagrams by going
through the forces acting on balanced objects such as a book on a table, a skydiver falling at
constant speed, a car travelling at constant speed, a stationary football on the ground. Students will
find the reaction force from the ground/table the most difficult to comprehend so it is worth
discussing what would happen if a reaction force was not provided to get this idea across.

This chapter provides a great opportunity to discuss practical techniques in relation to accuracy and
best practice for conducting, recording and evaluating data.

What to expect

1.11 describe the effects of forces between bodies such as changes in speed, shape or direction

1.12 identify different types of force such as gravitational or electrostatic

1.13 understand how vector quantities differ from scalar quantities

1.14 understand that force is a vector quantity

1.15 calculate the resultant force of forces that act along a line

1.16 know that friction is a force that opposes motion

1.22 practical: investigate how extension varies with applied force for helical springs, metal wires
and rubber bands

1.23 know that the initial linear region of a force–extension graph is associated with Hooke’s law

1.24 describe elastic behaviour as the ability of a material to recover its original shape after the
forces causing deformation have been removed

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This topic should be relatively straightforward as students will have encountered the main principles
in KS3. The new ideas that require time are the introduction of free body force diagrams as this will
be a completely new concept for students. Students will need to be guided through drawing force
arrows correctly and be allowed to apply the rules to a variety of examples.

Practically, students will be introduced to the idea of force against extension graphs and the impact
of forces on materials. They will encounter steel springs and rubber. It is worth students conducting
this practical and being guided through the safety implications, ideas of correct technique and
repetition of results in order to reduce error. This will be a new idea that students will not have
encountered before.

Teaching notes

Start activities

Balloon demonstration / ball made from a spongy material: Ask students to stand in a circle. Give the
ball/balloon to one student. As a group, they need to make the balloon travel in a circle. As they do
this, they should watch how the balloon moves. This can lead to the discussion: How did you make
the balloon move? How did the balloon move when a different person applied a force? If we just
look at the balloon and not how it moves, what would we notice about the balloon when the force is
applied? How else could we change its shape using a force? This elicits the idea that forces can
change the shape, speed and direction of an object.

Friction demonstration: Ask students to rub their hands together. What do they notice? Students
will notice quickly the heat generated from the friction between their hands. The ridges in the skin
provide the friction between the hands. As they rub their hands together, the kinetic energy in the
movement of their hands is transferred to heat. Students could be asked to predict the impact of
moving their hands faster on the amount of heat generated. This could lead to the discussion of why
friction is often seen as a force that has a negative impact (think wear and tear on parts in moving
objects).

Friction – good or bad: Place a variety of pictures on the board that represent where friction is useful
or a hindrance. Examples could be: a car on a roundabout, tyres of an F1 car, ice skater, etc. Ask
students to label if friction is useful or not useful in these pictures. This will soon identify if students
have the right idea about friction and provides a good forum to discuss ways in which friction can be
reduced/increased to fit the required purpose.

Ice cube and block demonstration: Have two blocks of similar size, one made of ice, the other of
wood. Ask a student to slide them with the same force across the same surface. What do they
notice? Why might this be? This will have a variety of discussion points in relation to friction and the
size of forces, etc. Friction ideas around the ice: it melts due to the friction between the surface and
the ice; water forms between the two and acts as a lubricant reducing the friction so it moves more
quickly. This can lead to a discussion about unbalanced forces. Unbalanced force is greater on the ice
block than the wooden block.

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Main activities

Free body force diagrams: Using examples, talk students through the key features of force body
diagrams. Rules for force arrows: the size of the arrow indicates the size of the force, the direction of
the arrow identifies the direction of the force, the arrow should start from where the force appears
to act (i.e. centre of the object for weight, points of contact for a contact force). Divide the class into
groups of three or four. Using flipchart pages with pre-drawn example situations around the room,
groups need to label on the forces for the given situation. Each group then describes their rationale
for their forces to the rest of the class. Class discuss then copy the final corrected examples.

Investigating friction practical: Students will record the force required to move the block on a given
surface. Students should set up the apparatus as shown in the diagram in Figure 2.9 on page 22.
Students should load on the masses one at a time until the block just starts to move. At this point,
the force required to move the block should be recorded. This can be repeated for a variety of
surfaces to see which has the highest friction. The rougher the surface the greater the friction.

Hooke’s law practical: Students will be measuring the extension of a spring under given loads.
Students should measure the original length of the spring (without a load). Measurements should be
taken consistently from the same two points. The use of a fiducial marker would be beneficial.
Students can also use a set square to ensure the clamped ruler is perpendicular to the bench.
Students should be advised about parallax error and in discussion come up with ways in which they
can reduce this and other errors. Students then add 100 g masses to the end of the spring, one at a
time, and record the new length. The extension is calculated by subtracting the original length from
this value. When tabulating results, students should be advised to keep all answers to the same
number of decimal places. In this instance, students may wish to measure in cm so they are
recording all values to 1 d.p. Students continue to measure each of the new lengths, always
subtracting the original to get the extension. Students then use this data to plot an extension against
force graph. Remind students to convert from g to N.

Behaviour of rubber practical: This is the same as the practical above but instead of using springs an
elastic band is used. This experiment can also be conducted using rubber toys to make the
experiment more fun. Rubber snakes or caterpillars are ideal.

Differentiation

Students who complete the Hooke’s law practical could project how the extension would be affected
should two springs be linked in series or in parallel. They could then test their hypotheses for these
arrangements by conducting the investigation or use the simulation in the practical section to obtain
results.

Students who struggle with the data collection could use a demo set up of the experiment and be
given a set of sample data.

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Homework

Students can focus on their write up for their practical for this section. This could include drawing
their graph and labelling key features of the graph, i.e. limit of proportionality, section illustrating
Hooke’s law etc. Students could also write a brief safety section for their investigation.

Possible misunderstandings

In this section, students cover the conversion between mass and weight very briefly so they may
have troubled converting their 100 g masses into newtons. At this stage, it is worth giving the
students the converted numbers for their tables as it will be covered in more detail in Chapter 3.

Practicals

Investigating friction practical: pulley system, masses, wooden block, a variety of test surfaces.

Hooke’s law practical: spring, 100 g masses, two retort stands, three clamps, d-clamp, metre rule, set
square, helical springs.

Behaviour of rubber practical: as above but using a rubber band instead of helical spring.

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