Chapter 1

Newton’s Laws & Forces

1.1 Classical Mechanics

Until ∼ 1600, Aristotle’s view of the Universe, in which Earth defined a “state of rest”, Common
was widely believed in Europe. Common sense: pretty much everything falls to the sense is
ground and stops moving doesn’t it? sometimes
nonsense
Galileo’s experiments – real and “thought” – overturned these ideas. Newton, born
a year after Galileo died in 1642, put Galileo’s ideas into a rigorous mathematical Principia’s full
framework in “Principia” (1687). title in
English:
Newton showed that, starting from a few experimentally-based principles, a huge Mathematical
range of physical phenomena could be understood quantitatively. The physics of Principles of
these phenomena – e.g the motions of planets, forces holding up bridges and build- Natural
ings - are termed “Classical Mechanics”. Philosophy

Classical mechanics is the bedrock of physics and engineering, and is capable of

great precision for motion at everyday speeds. It is classical mechanics that has al-
lowed us to send probes to other planets for example. Many techniques developed
for classical mechanics extend to other areas of physics, and it will crop up repeat-
edly throughout other physics modules. One cannot appreciate physics without a
firm grasp of classical mechanics.

1.2 Newton’s Laws

1.2.1 Newton’s First Law – N1

Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion unless acted on
by an external force.
Straight from
Galileo.
More compactly:

A body moves at constant velocity unless acted upon by a force.

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PX148 Classical Mechanics & Special Relativity Chapter 1.2

We know the property of an object that resists changes in velocity as its “mass” (also
“inertia” or “inertial mass”).
N1 only holds in special “frames of reference” known as “inertial frames” – non-
accelerating, non-rotating – otherwise we would measure accelerations even in the
absence of forces.
What exactly defines inertial frames (e.g. what do they not accelerate or rotate rel-
ative to?) is a deep and unresolved question.

1.2.2 Newton’s Second Law – N2

Defining a new quantity, momentum, as the product of mass times velocity:

p = mv,

N2 says:

The rate of change of momentum of a body is equal to the total external

force acting upon it.

or, for short:

Force equals rate of change of momentum

According to N2 therefore

dp
F = ,
dt
where F is the (total) force acting and t is the time. If the mass m is constant this can
be written

dv
F =m = ma,
dt
where a is the rate of change of velocity (acceleration) of the body.

Example 1.1. An oil tanker has mass m = 500 000 t. Its engine and propeller can
exert a maximum force of F = 5 × 106 N.
Ignoring water resistance, how long does it take to reach a speed of 5 m s−1 , starting
from rest?

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PX148 Classical Mechanics & Special Relativity Chapter 1.4

Answer.
F 5 × 106
a= = = 10−2 m s−2 .
m 5 × 108
So it will take 500 s to reach v = 5 m s−1 .

1.2.3 Newton’s Third Law – N3

To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

For “action” and “reaction” read the more modern “force”. N3 says that if I push a
car with a force of 200 N, then the car will push back on me with a force of 200 N.

1.3 Scalars and Vectors

Physical quantities seen so far such as m, v, p, a, F , and t fall into two classes:

scalars: quantities like mass m and time t that have a size, scale or magnitude, but
no direction. They can be positive or negative.

vectors: quantities like velocity ⃗v , momentum ⃗p, acceleration ⃗a or force F

⃗ that
have magnitude and direction.

I will denote vectors using underlined symbols in lectures. You may also see the
use of arrows over symbols. In these notes I indicate vectors using bold face with
arrows or hats (denoting unit vectors) on top.
Written properly, N2 in the form “F = ma” becomes

⃗ = m⃗a.
F
We will see many such vector relations. A scalar cannot equal a vector e.g. the In 1D, the
following are both invalid: scalar form
“F = ma” is
fine, but try to
think in terms
r = 2⃗v , 7 of vectors.
m + ⃗v = ⃗p. 7

1.4 Contact Forces

When two objects touch, their atoms interact through electromagnetic and quan-
tum effects giving rise to forces between them.

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PX148 Classical Mechanics & Special Relativity Chapter 1.4

On our large “macroscopic” scale, we describe the contact force as a combination

of a normal reaction and a frictional force.
“normal” here means acting perpendicular to the contact.

1.4.1 Static Friction

Consider applying a steadily increasing horizontal force F to a stationary object of

weight W at rest on a horizontal surface: Advice: draw
diagrams for
all but the
N most trivial
F problems!
They are a key
FS visualisation
aid.

W
Figure: Forces on a block. W and N are offset for clarity. They must
in fact act in line with each other since no rotation occurs. Reaction
forces to W and FS that act on the surface that the block is on are
not shown for clarity.

N is the normal reaction, FS is the static frictional force which opposes F .

While the block is at rest, N1 shows us that zero total force acts, hence N = W and
FS = F .
There is a maximum to the force that static friction can provide. If F exceeds it,
the block will accelerate. Experimentally the maximum static friction is found to be
proportional to N : Amontons’
max(FS ) = µS N, Law

where µS is the coefficient of static friction. Thus in general

FS ≤ µS N.
e.g. steel/steel µS = 0.3; teflon/teflon 0.04; rubber/rubber 1.2. NB It is
possible to
have µS > 1.
1.4.2 Kinetic friction

Once motion occurs, friction is still roughly proportional to the normal force, but
the coefficient changes:

FK = µK N,
where µK is the coefficient of kinetic or dynamic friction. Note that the speed does
not appear.

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PX148 Classical Mechanics & Special Relativity Chapter 1.6

In general µK < µS , so once slippage starts, it continues, but µK is similar in size to

µS .
The equations of friction do not have the same fundamental basis as Newton’s Laws,
but are approximations to the complex phenomena that occur between surfaces.
They allow us to make progress with problems of great practical importance but
numerical results should always be treated with caution in critical cases. The simple
addition of oil can dramatically alter the coefficient of friction for instance. Engi-
neers standardly build in safety factors into their designs.

1.5 Example: block on a slope

See UP ch4 on
Consider a stationary block on a slope: “free body”
diagrams. I
don’t
Fs N personally
much like
their use of
wiggly lines to
scrub forces
that they also
θ plot resolved
into
W=mg components.
θ I recommend
drawing the
resolved
1. Only the forces on the block are shown. forces only.

2. Equal and opposite forces to FS and N act on the slope, but we are not inter-
ested in them here, so we don’t show them.

3. Stationary, so by N1 the total force on the block is zero.

4. Force is a vector and so must balance separately along all independent direc-
tions or “degrees of freedom” (two in this case). Must therefore resolve forces
in two directions.

5. The choice of directions is up to you: try to make things easy.

Here, perpendicular and parallel to the inclined plane are good choices:

N − W cos θ = 0,
FS − W sin θ = 0.
In rushing to
finish lecture
Hence, for no slippage: 2 I wrote
tan θ ≥ µS on
FS = W sin θ ≤ µS N = µS W cos θ,
my pad.
Corrected in
lecture 3.
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PX148 Classical Mechanics & Special Relativity Chapter 1.6

and so, dividing through by W cos θ,

tan θ ≤ µS .

This provides an easy way to measure µS : gradually increase θ until the block starts
to move at a critical angle θ = θC , then µS = tan θC .
How might you measure µK ?

1.6 Gravitational Force

1 r
~
F 12
r̂
2

The gravitational force between two point masses m1 and m2 a distance r apart is
given by Newton’s Law of Gravity:

Gm1 m2
F = ,
r2
where G = 6.674 × 10−11 N m2 kg−2 is the gravitational constant. [N.B In the lecture “Big G”
I meant to write G with these units, but misremembered and wrote something else.
Some helpful chap suggested m3 kg−1 s−2 instead which is equivalent to the above
as 1 N = 1 kg m s−2 . In exams you will be given G (and its units) if you need it].
It is an attractive force that acts along the line joining the two masses. These state-
ments are contained in the single vector expression:

⃗ 12 = − Gm1 m2 r̂,
F
r2
where F ⃗ 12 is the force exerted by mass 1 on mass 2 and r̂ is a unit vector pointing
from 1 to 2. The -ve sign ⇒ attraction. In this notation, the distance r is the mag-
nitude of the vector ⃗r 12 = ⃗r 2 − ⃗r 1 which connects from 1 → 2, i.e. r = |⃗r 12 | and
r̂ = ⃗r 12 /r.
[Pedantic note: in the often-seen equation

Gm1 m2
F =− ,
r2
the minus sign has no clear meaning because it is not vectorial.]

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PX148 Classical Mechanics & Special Relativity Chapter 1.6

1.6.1 Newton’s shell theorem

I assume the
shell theorem
the same equation applies to two uniform spheres of masses m1 and m2 if without proof;
r is the distance between their centres. it took
Newton years
to prove (he
Big G is difficult to measure: need large, dense objects to get significant force. had to
Cavendish (1798) used lead spheres to “weigh Earth”. (Read up on Cavendish’s develop
experiment.) calculus). It is
not hard to
Example 1.2. Three identical iron spheres of radius 5 m are placed in contact as
prove, but
shown below. Calculate the gravitational force on sphere A due to B and C. would cost a
full lecture. I
B encourage
A you to look it
R up.

Answer. The force on A due to B alone has magnitude

GmB mA
FBA = .
r2
Setting r = 2R, and
4π 3
mA = mB = R ρ,
3
then
16Gπ 2 R6 ρ2 4Gπ 2 4 2
FBA = = R ρ.
9 × 4R2 9
Putting R = 5 m and ρ = 7874 kg m−3 , the density of iron,

4 × 6.674 × 10−11 × π 2 ( )2
FBA = × 54 × 7.874 × 103 = 11.33 N.
9
The total force is not twice this since the forces from B and C upon A are not
parallel. Instead only the component towards the centre of mass of the three
spheres matters, giving
√
Ftot = 2FBA cos(30◦ ) = FBA 3 = 19.6 N.

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PX148 Classical Mechanics & Special Relativity Chapter 1.6

[A quick note on significant figures here since this is the first problem we’ve en-
countered which needed a calculator. I’m using R exactly equal to 5 m since the
question specifies that parameter. In these notes I’m aiming for 3 s.f. (a sensible
default) in my final result so have worked with ρ and G accurate to 4 s.f., and also
kept the intermediate FBA to 4 s.f.
In lectures I’m usually just looking to get a feeling for the scale of a number (e.g.
could we measure the above force in a lab) so will probably be rather sloppy with
significant figures.
For the problem sheets you should make sensible choices on how accurate to be.
Defaulting to 3 s.f. will usually be fine.]

Example 1.3. How much less would a person of mass m = 70 kg weigh at the top
of the Eiffel tower compared to the ground?

Answer. Weight on ground

GME m
WG = 2
,
RE

where ME and RE are the mass and radius of Earth. Weight at top

GME m
WT = ,
(RE + h)2

where h = 320 m is the height of the Eiffel tower.

Difference
( )
1 1
WG − WT = GME m 2
− ,
RE (RE + h)2
( )
(RE + h)2 − RE 2
= GME m 2
,
RE (RE + h)2
( )
2RE h + h2
= GME m 2
,
RE (RE + h)2
2GME mh
≈ 3
,
RE
( ) ( )
GME h
= 2 2
m ,
RE RE
( )
h
= 2 mg = 0.07 N.
RE

where the approximations of the 4th line follow because h ≪ RE so h2 ≪ 2RE h,

and the expression for the acceleration due to gravity has been extracted.

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