Newton’s Laws

of Motion
and Applications
Newton’s First Law of Motion

A body at rest remains at rest

or, if in motion, remains in
motion at constant velocity
unless acted on by a net
external force.

Rather than contradicting our

experience, Newton’s first law
says that there must be a
cause for any change in
velocity to occur.
Gravitation and Inertia

Regardless of the scale of an object, whether

a molecule or a subatomic particle, two
properties remain valid and thus of interest to
physics: gravitation and inertia. Both are
connected to mass.

Roughly speaking, mass is a measure of the

amount of matter in something. Gravitation
is the attraction of one mass to another, such
as the attraction between yourself and Earth
that holds your feet to the floor. The
magnitude of this attraction is your weight,
and it is a force.
Mass is also related to inertia, the ability of
an object to resist changes in its motion—in
other words, to resist acceleration.
Newton’s first law is often called the law of
inertia.

As we know from experience, some objects

have more inertia than others. It is more
difficult to change the motion of a large rock
than that of a basketball, for example,
because the the large rock has more mass
than the basketball. In other words, the
inertia of an object is measured by its mass.
Inertial Reference Frames

An inertial frame of reference is the

type of frame where Newtonian laws
are true. This implies that if no
outside force is exerted on an object,
it will continue to stay in uniform
motion or state of rest.
Newton’s second law

is closely related to his first law. It

mathematically gives the cause-and-
effect relationship between force and
changes in motion. Newton’s second
law is quantitative and is used
extensively to calculate what
happens in situations involving a
force.
Example:
Suppose that the net external force
exerted on a lawn mower is 51 N parallel
to the ground. The mass of the mower is
24 kg. What is its acceleration?
Example 2:

Calculate the magnitude of force

exerted by each rocket, called its
thrust T, for the four-rocket
propulsion system. The sled’s initial
acceleration is 49m/s2, the mass of
the system is 2100 kg, and the force
of friction opposing the motion is 650
N.
Newton’s 3rd law

His third law states that for every

action (force) in nature there is an
equal and opposite reaction. If
object A exerts a force on object
B, object B also exerts an equal
and opposite force on object A. In
other words, forces result from
interactions.
Example:
A physics professor pushes a cart of
demonstration equipment to a lecture
hall. Her mass is 65.0 kg, the cart’s
mass is 12.0 kg, and the equipment’s
mass is 7.0 kg. Calculate the
acceleration produced when the
professor exerts a backward force of
150 N on the floor. All forces opposing
the motion, such as friction on the
cart’s wheels and air resistance, total
24.0 N.
GREAT JOB!