Newton’s Laws of Motion Terms & Laws

FORCE Mutual interaction between 2 objects resulting in pushes or pulls. Has direction Measured in Newtons (N) Examples: a ball being kicked. Pushing a chair back Air particles causing a parachute to slow down.

Unbalanced Forces When the forces on an object are not balanced. One force is stronger than another. Acceleration, a change in motion, occurs.

Balanced forces When the forces on an object are equal. No acceleration (change in motion) occurs.

Newton’s First Law of Motion Objects in motion stay in motion, objects at rest stay at rest unless acted on by a unbalanced forces. Also known as inertia. Astronaut video.

Normal force When 2 surfaces are pushing on each other. Often balances gravity Only used when looking at the forces on a single object.

Friction Does it speed you up or slow you down? Works in the opposite direction of the motion.

Conclusion from rubber band wars Force on me equals force on you. Forces act in opposite directions.

NEWTON’S THIRD LAW of MOTION For every action there is an equal an opposite reaction Must include 2 “objects” Refers to the force each is exerting on each other.

Mass Anything made of particles of matter.

Newton’s Second Law a=F The acceleration of an object occurs in the direction of the force and is inversely proportional to the mass. Typically you see this expressed as F=ma

Force & acceleration Acceleration is directly related to force (what force does, acceleration does) If force increases, acceleration increases

Mass & acceleration Mass has an inverse relationship to acceleration (acceleration does the opposite of mass) If mass gets bigger, acceleration is smaller.

A WEBQUEST . . . http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/louviere/Newton/