Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
Introduction
In statics, we used Newton’s first and third laws of motion extensively to study bodies
at rest and the forces acting upon them. We also use these two laws in dynamics; in
fact, they are sufficient for analyzing the motion of bodies that have no acceleration.
However, when a body is accelerated–– that is, when the magnitude or the direction of
its velocity changes––it is necessary to use Newton’s second law of motion to relate
the motion of the body to the forces acting on it.
In this chapter, we discuss Newton’s second law and apply it to analyzing the motion
of particles.
Newton’s Second Law
If the resultant force acting on a particle is not zero, the particle has an
acceleration proportional to the magnitude of the resultant and in the
direction of this resultant force.
F = ma
Newton’s Second Law