FORCES

FORCES

 A force is a push or a pull.

Force can :
a) can change its speed or direction of motion of a body
b) can change a body’s shape or size

 Force has both magnitude (size) and direction

 it is represented in diagrams by a straight line with an arrow

to show its direction of action

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Resultant Forces on a Straight Line
 A resultant force is a single force that describes all of the forces
operating on a body

 The resultant force is sometimes called the net force

Forces can combine to produce:

a)Balanced forces

 Balanced forces mean that the forces have combined in such a way
that they cancel each other out and no resultant force acts on the
body

b)Unbalanced forces

 Unbalanced forces mean that the forces have combined in such a

way that they do not cancel out completely and there is a resultant
force on the object
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Resultant forces can be calculated by:

 Forces working in opposite directions are

subtracted from each other

 Forces working in the same direction are

added together

Ans: The resultant force is 2 N to the left

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Newton's First Law of Motion

Newton's first law of motion states that Objects will remain at rest, or move with a constant
velocity unless acted on by a resultant force

If the resultant force acting on an object is zero:

 The object will remain stationary if it was stationary before

 The object will continue to move at the same velocity if it

was moving

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Newton's Second Law
 Newton's second law of motion states that the acceleration of an object is proportional to the
resultant force acting on it and inversely proportional to the object's mass

Newton's second law explains the following important

principles:
 An object will accelerate (change its velocity) in
response to a resultant force

 The bigger this resultant force, the larger the

acceleration

 For a given force, the greater the object's mass, the

smaller the acceleration experienced

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Newton's second law can be expressed as an equation:

F = ma

Where,
F = resultant force on the object in Newtons (N)
m = mass of the object in kilograms (kg)
a = acceleration of the object in meters per second squared (m/s )

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Investigating Springs

• Springs were investigated by Robert Hooke just over 350 years ago. He found that

Extension ∝ Stretching force

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Hooke's Law

Hookeʼs law states that the extension of a spring is

proportional to the applied force

Where,
F is the force applied
k is the spring constant
x is the extension of the spring
The spring constant is the force per unit extension
The units are N/m
The spring constant is a measure of how stiff the spring is

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Friction in Solids
 Friction is a force that works in opposition to the
motion of an object

 Friction in solids is caused by imperfections in the

surfaces of the objects moving over one another

 Friction not only slows the object down but also

causes an increase in thermal energy

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Friction in Fluids
• Gases and liquids are known as fluids

• The force on an object that resists its motion through a

fluid is called drag

• When the fluid is a gas like air, it is

called aerodynamic drag or air resistance

• When the fluid is a liquid like water it is

called hydrodynamic drag

• In order to minimize the influence of drag force, fast

vehicles are created and designed, as streamlined as
possible

• As drag is a force, it’s a vector quantity with a

magnitude as well as a direction
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 Circular Motion
 Circular motion is described as a movement of an
object while rotating along a circular path

 This force, which acts towards the center and keeps a

body moving in a circular path, is called the
centripetal force (center-seeking force)

 An object moving in circular motion travels at a

constant speed but has a changing velocity

The Moon is pulled towards the Earth (at 90 degrees

to its direction of travel). This causes it to travel in a
circular path

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 Cont.…
The force needed to make something follow a circular
path depends on a number of factors:
c)The radius of the circle
a) The mass of the object:
A smaller radius requires a greater force to
 A greater mass requires a greater force when the speed
keep the speed and radius constant
and radius are constant

b)The speed of the object

 A faster-moving object requires a greater force when

the mass and radius are constant

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Moments
 A moment is defined as: The turning effect of a force
about a pivot

The size of a moment is defined by the equation:

Where,
M = moment in newton metres (Nm)
F = force in newtons (N)
d = perpendicular distance of the force to the pivot in metres (m)

Some other examples involving moments includes:

a) Using a crowbar to prize open something
b) Turning a tap on or off
c) A wheelbarrow
d) Scissors
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 Principle of Moments
• The principle of moments states that If an object
is balanced, the total clockwise moment about a
pivot equals the total anticlockwise moment
about that pivot

ANS:1.48 m 17
Cont.…

Force F2 is supplying a clockwise moment;

Forces F1 and F3 are supplying anticlockwise

moments
Hence,

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Equilibrium
EQUILIBRUIM

• The term equilibrium means that an object keeps

doing what it's doing, without any change

The above conditions require two things:

a) The forces on the object must be balanced

b) The sum of clockwise moments on the object must

equal the sum of anticlockwise moments

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 Centre of Gravity
 The center of gravity of an object is the point at which
the weight of the object may be considered to act

 For symmetrical objects with uniform density, the

center of gravity is located at the point of symmetry

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 Momentum

An object with mass that is in motion has momentum which is

defined by the equation:

momentum = mass × velocity

Where:
P= mv p = momentum in kilogram meter per second (kg m/s)
m = mass in kilograms (kg)
v = velocity in meters per second (m/s)
An object at rest (i.e. v = 0) has no momentum

Momentum can be either positive or negative

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Cont.…
The momentum of an object will change if:
i. The object accelerates or decelerates
ii. Changes direction
iii. Its mass changes

The tennis ball's momentum is negative when it moves

in the opposite direction to which it initially was
travelling in
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Cont.…

 Both the tennis ball and the brick have the same momentum Even though the brick is
much heavier than the ball, the ball is travelling much faster than the brick

 This means that on impact, they would both exert a similar force (depending on the
time it takes for each to come to rest)
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Conservation of Momentum
The principle of conservation of momentum states that In a closed system, the total momentum
before an event is equal to the total momentum after the event

OR

Total momentum before a collision = Total

momentum after a collision

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Cont.…

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Impulse
Impulse of a force is defined as the measure of total effect of force

The impulse of a force is equal to that force multiplied by the time for which it acts :

The change in momentum of a mass is equal to the impulse provided by the force

Impulse = FΔt = Δp
A cricket player lowers has hands while catching the ball : by doing so the time of impact increases
and hence the effect of force decreases
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Cont.…

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Force & Momentum
 Force can also be defined as the rate of change of momentum on a body

 The change in momentum is defined as the final momentum minus the initial momentum

These can be expressed as follows:

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