Forces

Brain dump anything you can

remember about forces
 Newton’s third law
Forces
Work out resultant force.
Describe difference between balanced
and unbalanced (Newton’s first Law)
Learning
Objectives
Draw force diagrams

Define scalar and vector and give examples

Describe contact and non-contact forces
L/O: Define scalar and vector and give examples

Scalar and
Vector

 Scalar means – has a magnitude only

(a number)

 Vector means – has a magnitude and

direction (a number and a direction)
L/O: Define scalar and vector and give examples
 Scalars = speed, distance, time,
Scalar and
mass, energy and power
Vector

 Vector = displacement,
acceleration, force, momentum,
weight, gravitational field
strength, velocity

So… distance is how far an object moves (scalar) as it has no

direction.
Where as displacement includes both distance (in a straight line
from start to finish) AND the direction (vector)
L/O: Describe contact and non-contact forces

 Forces come in two main types:

 Contact – means objects are

Forces touching

 Non-contact – means objects

are physically separated
L/O: Describe contact and non-contact forces

 Examples:
 Contact –
 F friction
 A air resistance
Forces
 T tension
 Non-contact –
 G gravitational
 E electrostatic
 M magnetic
L/O: Draw force diagrams

Free body
Force diagrams
 Forces are VECTORS

 They have a magnitude and a direction –

we use force arrows to represent them
(they show the size and direction,
VECTOR)

 We try to draw them to a scale

 E.g. 1cm represents 1N
L/O: Draw force diagrams

 They can be…

Free body  In opposite directions
Force diagrams
(Where the object is
 Or the same direction
represented by a dot)
 In 4 directions
There is always more  The same magnitude
than one force acting
on an object  Different magnitudes
L/O: Calculate resultant force

As seen, a number of forces act

on an object.
We can replace them with a
Resultant forces single force that has the same
effect as all the original forces
acting together.

This single force is called the

resultant force
L/O: Calculate resultant force

RESULTANT FORCE is the

calculated overall force acting on
Resultant force the object, taking into account
magnitudes and directions

In this case, 30N up, 30N down

So the RESULTANT FORCE
= 0N
L/O: Difference between balanced and unbalanced

Force diagrams

Forces are in opposite directions but same

magnitude

resultant force = 0
L/O: Difference between balanced and unbalanced

Force diagrams

Unbalanced: means the object is getting

faster of slower (accelerating or
decelerating)
Different magnitudes, in different
directions and resultant force can be
calculated

200N 1000N
Newton’s third law

Sometimes written as…

To every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction
Newton’s third law

The person pulls the rope on the wall with a force of 500N.

Newton’s 3rd Law says that the tension exerted on the

other side is also 500N, but in the opposite direction
Newton’s third law
Newton’s third law
Newton’s third law
Newton’s third law
 1. State the difference between scalars and
vectors. Give examples.

2. Give examples of contact and non-contact

forces

Questions 3. Draw a free body force diagram showing a

force of 55N to the left and 32N to the right.
Calculate any resultant force and say if it is
balanced or not

4. A lorry tows broken down car. The force of

the lorry on the tow rope is 200N. How much
force is exerted on the tow rope by the lorry?