Teacher Notes

Symbols
I do: my turn to talk. This is the explanation section of our
lesson where you are required to listen.

We do: this is where we discuss or work on the concepts

together.

You do: your turn to be involved. You may be working in a

group or on an activity individually.
 What is Force?
A ‘force’ is a push or pull acting on an object. A force can
cause an object to speed up, to slow down, to remain
still, or to change its shape. The location and movement
of all things in the universe is dependent on the forces
acting on them, from the swaying of a blade of
grass to the movements
of moons, planets,
stars and galaxies.
 The Laws of Motion
Humans have known about force since ancient
times, but we did not understand it from a
mathematical perspective at first. In 1687, Sir
Isaac Newton published his thesis Philosophiæ
Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which
included three laws of motion. We still use
Newton’s laws to describe force today. Legend
has it that Newton used gravity to help him
describe force and motion after an apple fell
on his head while he was sitting under a tree!
 Contact Force
Force can be classified into two main types:
‘contact force’ and ‘non-contact force’. Contact
force occurs when force is applied to an object
through touch. Contact force can act on an
object in many ways. The most obvious is
applied force, which is when one object
directly pushes against another. Less obvious
contact forces are frictional force, tension
force, normal force, air resistance force,
and spring force.
 Non-contact Force
Sometimes called ‘action at a distance’ forces,
non-contact forces act on objects without
physically touching them. You are probably
familiar with two non-contact forces: gravity
and magnetism. Gravity is the force that keeps
objects on Earth from flying off into space.
Magnetism is the force that attracts or repels objects
of certain materials. Two other non-contact forces are the strong
nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, which determine the
behaviour of particles inside atoms.
 Force and Speed
Remember when you were little and you used to push
toy cars around? You quickly learned that the harder
you pushed, the faster the toy car moved. In scientific
terms, we say that force is directly related to the speed
of an object. More force means greater changes to an
object’s speed. Why doesn’t the car go forever
when you push it? Because other
forces are acting on it too, causing it to
slow down and to eventually stop.
 Look at the World
Place a pencil on the desk in front of you. Do
not touch or blow on the pencil. Do not
touch your desk in any way. Consider the
forces that are acting on the pencil. Are they
pushing or pulling forces?
As a class, discuss what is happening to allow
the pencil to remain motionless on the desk
in front of you. The teacher can draw a
labelled diagram on the board to explain.
 Independent Task
Take a look at the Types of Contact Forces Worksheet. You may not
know the names of the different contact forces, but you can observe
them in the pictures on the worksheet.
Using the contact force types listed in the word bank, see whether you
can identify each type of contact force.