What is a force?

A force is a push or a pull. A force cannot be seen but

you can see how a force affects an object.

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 Forces activity

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Introducing balanced forces

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 What are the sources of friction?
Label all sources of friction that can act on this bike.
brake pad
and rim
pedal bearing
wheel
bearing wheel bearing

air
Oneresistance or “drag”
more? Probably
the most important…

links in chain
tyre and road
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 Forces in water
What is thrust? The force that pushes an object forward.
The force that pushes an object upwards
What is upthrust?
in a liquid or a gas, also called buoyancy.

upthrust

thrust friction

weight

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 Ferry forces

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 Changing forces
The ferry arrives at Calais and is loaded with travellers.

What happens to the weight of the ship? increases

What happens to the upthrust on the ship? increases
Which is the largest force - weight or upthrust? both equal

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 What is Newton’s first law?
If the resultant force acting on an object is zero, all the
forces are said to be balanced.

This forms the basis of Newton’s first law of motion,

which states:

If the forces on an object are balanced, the object

will continue to do what it is already doing:
 if the object is stationary, it will remain stationary
 if the object is moving, it will continue to move at
the same speed and in the same direction.

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 When forces are balanced

balanced forces
10 N 10 N

If you link two forcemeters and pull equally hard from both
ends, the forces recorded on both will be the same.
The forces acting on the central hooks cancel each other out
– they are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
Because the forces are balanced the hooks do not move.

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 When forces are unbalanced

unbalanced forces
11 N 10 N
movement

What happens if the pull on one end is greater than the pull
on the other end?
The forces acting on the hooks are no longer balanced.
Both hooks will start to move to the left – their speed will
change. This is called acceleration.
Unbalanced forces lead to a change in speed or direction.

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 Resultant forces

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 Resultant force

A resultant force is needed to change the

velocity of an object. If the forces on an object
are balanced then it will remain stationary, or, if
it is moving, it will continue to move at a steady
speed in the same direction. This seems strange
because we are used to frictional forces slowing
things down.

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 Resultant forces
Forces have size and direction. On diagrams they are
represented by arrows, in the direction the force acts.
The length of the arrow represents the size of the force.
When an object has several forces acting on it, the
effect is the same as one force in a certain direction.
This is called the resultant force. Fig. 9.5 shows how
forces can be combined to give a resultant force. If the
resultant force is zero the forces on the object are
balanced.

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 Balanced or unbalanced
forces?

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 Effect of frictional forces

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 Resistance to motion – friction and
drag

When one object slides over another there is

friction, a resistive force between the two
surfaces. This arises because, on a microscopic
scale, the surfaces are not completely smooth
and the high points become stuck together.

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 Air Resistance
Air resistance (or drag), is a resistive force that acts against
objects that are moving through the air. Drag acts on
objects moving through any fluid (gas or liquid) – and is
larger in liquids.

Friction and drag forces:

always act against the direction of motion
are zero when there is no movement
increase as the speed of the object increases.

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 Friction and drag forces

When the driving force is larger than the resistive

force, the cyclist speeds up; when they are equal he
travels at a steady speed, and when the driving
force is less than the resistive force he slows down. 
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 What is friction?
If you rub your hands
together they get warm.
There is resistance to the
rubbing motion.
What is the name of this
resistive force called?

It is called friction.

What causes this force?

Your hands might look smooth, but on a microscopic level

they have rough surfaces. So when you rub your hands
together you feel the resistive force of friction.

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 More about friction
Friction always tries to slow moving objects down.
We say it opposes motion.

Friction is created whenever two touching objects or

surfaces move past each other.

Friction also occurs when things move through air.

This is called air resistance or drag.

There is a maximum value for the frictional force

which depends on:
 the force pushing the two surfaces together;
 the state of the surfaces in contact.

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Terminal velocity of a skydiver

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 Velocity–time graph of
skydiver

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 Force and acceleration

A resultant force on an object causes it to

accelerate. The acceleration:
is in the same direction as the force
increases as the size of the force increases
depends on the mass of the object – is smaller
for a larger mass.

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 Newton’s 2nd Law
If the ending force acting on an object is not zero, all the
forces are said to be unbalanced.

This forms the basis of Newton’s second law of motion,

which states:

If the forces on an object are unbalanced, two

things about the object can change:
 the speed of the object may change – it may either
increase or decrease
 the direction of motion may change.

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 How is movement calculated from
force?
The ending force acting on an object is related to the
object’s mass and acceleration. These three factors are
linked by the following equation:
force = mass x acceleration

 Ending force is measured in newtons (N).

 Mass is measured in kilograms (kg).
 Acceleration is measured in meters per second per
second (m/s2).

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 Using a formula triangle
A formula triangle helps you to rearrange a formula. The
formula triangle for force (f), mass (m) and acceleration (a)
is shown below.
Cover the quantity that you are trying to work out, which
gives the rearranged formula needed for the calculation.

So to find force (f), …which gives

cover up f… the formula…

  f = mxa

x
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 How do we use Newton’s second law?
A car has a mass of
1,000 kg. What force
must the car’s engine
supply to cause an
acceleration of 2 m/s2?

force = mass x acceleration

= 1,000 x 2
= 2,000 N

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 How do we use Newton’s second law?
A truck has a mass of 12,000 kg. What acceleration is caused
by a force of 10,000 N?

force = mass x acceleration

acceleration = force
mass
= 10,000
12,000

= 0.83 m/s2

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 F = ma calculations

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 Newton’s Third Law of Motion
What forces are acting on Mel’s computer?
The computer is pulled
downwards by the force weight
of gravity and causes
it to have weight.
The table exerts an
equal and opposite reaction
force pushing upwards force
on the computer. This is
called the reaction force.
These forces are balanced so the computer does not move.
What forces are acting on Mel as she works at her computer?

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 What is Newton’s third law?
A force cannot exist on its own – there is always a second
force acting against it.

This forms the basis of Newton’s third law of motion

states, which states:

For every action, there is an equal and opposite

reaction.

These pairs of forces that act between two objects are called
action–reaction pairs.

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 Action–reaction pairs

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 Introducing unbalanced forces

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 What are mass and weight?
Mass and weight are not the same!
Mass is the amount of matter in an object and is
measured in kilograms. Mass is not a force.
Mass will have the same value anywhere in the Universe,
including outer space.

Weight is a force and is caused by the pull of gravity

acting on a mass. Like other forces, weight is measured
in newtons and has both magnitude and direction.
Weight has different values depending on where you are
in the Universe.

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 Gravity

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 Mass and weight
Mass is measured in kilograms. An object has the
same mass on the Earth, on the Moon, or far out
in deep space. Weight is a force and is measured
in newtons. Weight is due to gravity attracting
the mass towards the centre of the Earth. In deep
space there is no gravity and the mass has no
weight. On the Moon, which has less mass than
the Earth, the gravitational attraction is less,
so objects will have less weight than they have on
the Earth (only one sixth).

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 Weight and mass on the Moon
The force of gravity is less on the
Moon than it is on Earth. This is
because the Moon has a smaller
mass than the Earth.
Any object will weigh less on the
Moon than it does on Earth.
An astronaut could jump 20 feet
into the air on the Moon because
gravity is less.
However, the astronaut still has the
same body and the same mass: he
just weighs less because gravity is
weaker on the Moon.

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 Talking about weight and mass
A scientist should never say:
“She weighs 50 kilograms,”
but should always say:
“She has a mass of 50 kilograms”.

Alternatively, the scientist could say:

“The gravitational force acting on her mass
is about 500 newtons”.
This is the same as saying:
“Her weight is about 500 newtons”.

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 Weight and mass on different planets

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 Weight or mass?

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 Stopping distance

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 Stopping distance
The distance that a vehicle travels between the driver
noticing a hazard and  when the vehicle stops is called
the stopping distance:
stopping distance = thinking distance + braking distance
Thinking distance is the distance travelled during the
driver’s reaction time  – the time between seeing the
hazard and applying the brakes.
Braking distance is the distance travelled while the
vehicle is braking

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 Stopping distance

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 Stopping distance
When speed doubles, thinking distance doubles, and braking
distance is four times as far.
The stopping distances will also be longer if:
The driver is tired, or affected by drugs (including alcohol
and some medicines,) or distracted and not concentrating.
Reaction time, and thinking distance are increased.
The road is wet or icy or the tyres or brakes are in poor
condition. The friction forces will be less, so the braking
distance will increase.
The vehicle is fully loaded with passengers or goods. The
extra mass reduces the deceleration during braking, so the
braking distance is increased.

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 Anagrams

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 Missing words

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 Multiple-choice quiz

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