Newtonian Mechanics

MYP4 Physics Notes

Motion
 Change in position of an object with respect to its surroundings in a given interval
of time.
 Change in position is mentioned as distance travelled or displacement.
 Distance is the total path length covered by an object.
 Displacement is the difference between the initial and the final position of an
object/ shortest distance covered by an object.
Graphs of Motion

Uniform motion
Uniform Motion means the object
covers equal distances in equal
intervals of time.
Non- uniform motion graph
Non- uniform motion means
object covers unequal distance
in equal or unequal intervals
of time.
Speed and velocity
 The odometer of a car reads 2000 km at the start of a trip and 2400 km at the end of
a trip. If the trip took 8hrs, calculate the average speed and average velocity of the
car, if it is moving towards x-axis.
 Usha swims in a 90 m long pool. She covers 180 m in one minute by swimming from
one end to the other and back along the same straight path. Find the average speed
of Usha.
 A car travels 600 m in 30 seconds towards North. Calculate the average speed with
which it travels. State how it can be written in terms of velocity. Identify the
difference between speed and velocity.
 Acceleration
 Change in velocity with respect to time is called as acceleration (a).
 In symbols a= (v-u)/t where, a is acceleration, v is the final velocity, u is initial velocity and t is the time
taken.
 Therefore, acceleration= final velocity- initial velocity/ time taken.
 Starting from a stationary position, Rahul paddles his bicycle to attain a velocity of 6 m/s in 30 s. Then
he applies brakes such that the velocity of the bicycle comes down to 4 m/s in the next 5 s. Calculate
the acceleration of the bicycle in both the cases.
 A car accelerates uniformly from 18 m/sec to 36 m/sec in 5 s.
Calculate the acceleration of the car.
Equation of motion
 There are three equation of motion:
 V= u+ at ……………………. Equation for velocity- time relation
 S= ut+1/2 𝑎𝑡 2 …………… Equation for position-time relation
 2as= 𝑣 2 - 𝑢2 …………………… Equation for position-velocity relation
 A train starting from rest attains a velocity of 72 m/sec in 8 sec. Assuming that the
acceleration is uniform find (i) the acceleration and (ii) the distance travelled by the
train for attaining this velocity.
 A car starts from rest and accelerates uniformly over a time of 7 seconds for a
distance of 98m. Determine the acceleration of the car.
 An engineer is designing the runway for an airport. Of the planes that will use an
airport, the lowest acceleration rate is likely to be 3m/𝑠𝑒𝑐 2 . The take off speed for
this plane will be 65m/sec. assuming this minimum acceleration, calculate the
minimum allowed length for the runway.
Revising the concept force
 A force is a push or pull experienced by an object. It has direction as well as
magnitude.
 Common types of forces are: gravitational force, frictional force, buoyant force,
etc.
 The forces can be contact or non contact.
 Contact forces are those in which the object and the body are in contact with each
other. Eg: frictional force, muscular force etc.
 Non- contact forces are those in which the contact is not necessary to experience
the effect on force acting on it. Eg: gravitational force, magnetic force etc.
 The net force experienced by an object is called as the resultant force acting on
the object.
 The resultant force can be balanced or unbalanced.
 Balanced, if all the forces acting on the object results to zero net force.
 Unbalanced, if all the forces acting on the object results to more than zero net
force.
Scalars and Vectors
 Scalar quantities are those which has only magnitude. Examples are mass and
volume
 Vectors are those which possess both magnitude and direction. Examples are
force and velocity.
 Vectors are represented by an arrow sign. Like 𝐹Ԧ
 Vectors acting in the same direction gets added.
 Vectors in the opposite direction gets subtracted.
Mass and weight
 The mass of an object refers to the amount of matter that is contained by the
object.
 The weight of an object is the force of gravity acting upon that object.
 The mass of an object (measured in kg) will be the same no matter where in the
universe that object is located.
 Mass is never altered by location, the pull of gravity, speed or even the existence of
other forces. For example, a 2-kg object will have a mass of 2 kg whether it is
located on Earth, the moon, or Jupiter; its mass will be 2 kg whether it is moving or
not.
 On the other hand, the weight of an object (measured in Newton) will vary according
to where in the universe the object is.
 Weight depends upon which planet is exerting the force and the distance the object
is from the planet.
 Weight, being equivalent to the force of gravity, is dependent upon the value of g -
the gravitational field strength.
Momentum (p)
 Momentum can be defined as "mass in motion.“
 Momentum depends upon the variables mass and velocity.
 In terms of an equation, p= m× v where m is the mass, v is the velocity and p
is the momentum.
 Momentum is a vector quantity which has both magnitude and direction.
Conservation of momentum
 For a collision occurring between object 1 and object 2 in an isolated system, the total
momentum of the two objects before collision and after collision remains equal.
 So, conservation of momentum is: 𝑚1 *𝑣1= - (𝑚2 *𝑣2 ) i.e. 𝑝1 =-(𝑝2 ) or p1+p2=0
 A 120 kg lineman moving west at 2 m/s tackles an 80 kg football fullback moving east at
8 m/s. After the collision, both players move east at 2 m/s. Draw a vector diagram in
which the before- and after-collision momenta of each player is represented by a
momentum vector. Label the magnitude of each momentum vector.
Newton’s First Law of motion
 It states that an object remains in the state of rest or of uniform motion in a
straight line unless an external force acts on it.
 In other words, if no external force is acting on an object then stationary
object will remain stationary and moving object will keep on moving at a
steady speed in straight line.
 This property of an object is called as inertia.
 So newton’s first law is called as Law of inertia.
Newton's Second Law of Motion
 It states that the net force experienced by a body is directly proportional to the rate of
change of momentum of the body.
 In other words force is mass times acceleration. F= m×a
 Change in momentum is taken as initial momentum and final momentum, where initial
momentum, p₁= mu and final momentum, p₂= mv.
 So p₂- p₁ = mv-mu= m(v-u).
 Rate of change of momentum= m(v-u)/t

Newton’s third law of motion

 It states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
 This means that whenever we apply a force, we tend to experience a similar
amount of force acting against us.