PHYSICS 101AH: LESSON 4 FORCES

In previous lessons, we studied how objects move. In this chapter, we will study why objects move as they do. We will study Newton's Laws of Motion, which explain the relationship between acceleration and force. We will also use Newton's Laws for problem solving.

4.1. What is a Force? Force can be defined as a push or a pull. (Technically, force is something that can accelerate objects.) For example, when you throw a baseball, you apply a force to the ball. Force is measured by N (Newton). A force that causes an object with a mass of 1 kg to accelerate at 1 m/s 2 is equivalent to 1 Newton.

4.2. Newton's First Law of Motion You will have to learn a new terminology here: net force. Net force is the sum of all forces acting on an object. For example, in a tag of war, when one team is pulling the tag with a force of 100 N and the other with 80 N, the net force would be 20 N at the direction of the first team (100 N - 80 N = 20 N). QUESTION: If both teams pull the tag with equal force, what would the net force be? When you slide your book on floor it will stop soon. When you slide it on icy surface, it will travel further and then stop. Galileo believed that when you slide a perfectly smooth object on a frictionless floor the object would travel forever. Isaac Newton developed the idea of Galileo further. He concluded that an object will remain at rest or move with constant velocity when there is no net force acting on it. This is called Newton's First Law of Motion, or Law of Inertia. 4.3. Newton's Second Law of Motion Newton's First Law deals with an object with no net force. Newton's Second Law talks about an object that has net force. It states that when the net force acting on an object is not zero, the object will accelerate at the direction of the exerted force. The acceleration is directly proportional to the net force and inversely proportional to the mass. It can be expressed in formula F = ma, where:

F is the net force in N, m is the mass of an object in kg and a is its acceleration in m/s2.

From this formula, we can say that force is something that accelerates an object. QUESTION: How much net force is required to accelerate a 1000 kg car at 5.00 m/s2? QUESTION: If you apply a net force of 1 N on 200 g-book, what is the acceleration of the book?

4.4. Newton's Third Law of Motion When you kick the wall in your room, you will probably end up hurting your foot. Newton's Third Law of Motion can explain why: when one object applies a force on a second object, the second object applies a force on the first that has an equal magnitude but opposite direction. In other words, when you kick the wall, the wall kicks you back with equal force. As a result you will get hurt. These forces are called action-reaction forces. Remember when you kick the wall, you exerts force on the wall. When the wall kicks you back, it exerts force on you. Therefore, the net force on the wall is not zero and the net force on your foot is not zero neither. QUESTION: What is the net force on 200 g ball when it hits a wall with acceleration of 10 m/s2? 4.5. Mass and Weight Mass and weight are different in physics. For example, your mass doesn't change when you go to the Moon, but your weight does. Mass shows the quantity, and weight shows the size of gravity. If you know your mass, you can easily find your weight because W = mg where:

W is weight in Newton (N), m is mass in kg, and g is the acceleration of gravity in m/s2. Weight

If your mass is 70 kg on Earth, your weight is W=(70 kg)(9.8 m/s2) = 686 N. is measured by Newton (N).

QUESTION: What is the mass of an object that has a weight of 115 N on the Moon? The gravity of the Moon is 1/6 of g (which is 9.8 m/s2).

4.6. Friction You will have to learn another vocabulary before you proceed: the normal force. The normal force acts on any object that touches surface (either directly or indirectly). The normal force would be applied on a ball on a table, but not on a ball in the air, for instance. It always acts perpendicularly to the surface. The formula to calculate the normal force is FN = - mg where:

FN is the normal force in Newton (N), m is the mass in kg, and g is the gravitational force in m/s2.

For example, the normal force acting on a 70 kg-person would be FN = - (70 kg)(-9.8 m/s2) = 686N

QUESTION: What is the normal force acting on the same person on the Moon? Now, we will talk about friction. When you slide your book on floor, it will come to stop because of the force of friction. Friction is the force that acts between two object in contact because of actionreaction. Force of friction can be calculated by the formula where:

Ff is the force of friction in N, is the coefficient of friction, and FN is the normal force in N.

The value of some example of .

depends on surface you are dealing with. The following table shows

Surface rubber on dry asphalt rubber on wet asphalt steel on steel steel on ice rubber on ice

Value of ~1 0.95 0.18 0.010 0.005

For example, if you throw a 500 g book on floor where Ff = = (0.1)(0.5 * 9.8) = 0.49 N

= 0.1, the force of friction would be:

QUESTION: What is the value of 4.7. Lesson 4 Quiz

if the force of friction on a 300 g book was 0.5 N?

Try the Lesson 4 Quiz and see how well you can do! Here is your chance to apply what you've learned in this lesson. We studied Newton's Laws of Motion in this chapter, which explain the relationship between acceleration and force. Newton's Second Law is especially useful in problem solving. You also learned the difference between mass and weight. You studied how to calculate the force of friction from given data. You can use the formula sheet if you need some help.

1. How big is the net force acting on an object with constant velocity? A car is moving at a constant velocity of 20 km/h (5.56 m/s). How much net force is required to raise its velocity to 50 km/h (13.89 m/s) in 30 seconds? Suppose the car has a mass of 150 kg.

1. If the net force of 7 N was continuously applied on 400 g object at rest, how long will it take to raise its velocity to 80 m/s? 2. You pushed a 1 kg box on floor where = 0.3. If the force you applied was 5 N, will the box move? 3. On Planet X, a 70 kg object can be lifted by a force of 400 N. a. What is the acceleration of gravity on Planet X? How much force is required if the same object is lifted on Earth? b. Suppose your car was taken to Planet X. If the car has a mass of 1500 kg, what would its weight be? 4. A book has a mass of 400 g. When you slided the book against the floor with 5 N, it accelerated at the rate of -1.5 m/s2. What would the coefficient of friction between the book and the floor be?

Supplementary Lesson This is the last chapter of Lesson 1. In this Lesson, you have learned how objects move and why. This chapter will summarize everything you learned. In this chapter, we will observe how a ball behaves under different conditions, and review what we have studied so far. Section 1. Dropping a Ball Let's start with the simplest thing: dropping a ball. We know that the ball will fall straight down when you drop it, since we applied no force on x-direction. The velocity on x-direction is zero and the acceleration is also zero. The ball will fall because of gravity. We know that the force of gravity applies to any object. The ball's acceleration on y direction is -9.8 m/s2. Its initial velocity is zero. The velocity of the ball is not dependent on its mass. The velocity is, however, dependent on its surface area and air resistance. We ignore the air resistance since it can make things complicated. The following illustrates how the ball will fall: The following table shows how to calculate position, velocity, and acceleration of the ball at a given time t. Displacement d=0 Velocity v=0 v = at Acceleration a=0 a = -9.8

x-direction y-direction

Section 2. Throwing a Ball Horizontally Next, think about throwing a ball in horizontal direction with an initial velocity of A. Then, the velocity of the ball on x direction is A, and it will stay unchanged since there is no force that will

influence its movement in horizontal direction. The acceleration on x direction is zero, because the net force on the ball is zero. The acceleration of the ball on y direction is -9.8 m/s2, and its initial velocity is zero. The ball will behave like this: You can change the initial velocity on x direction and see how it behaves. The following table shows how to calculate displacement, velocity, and acceleration of the ball. Displacement d = At Velocity v=A v = at Acceleration a=0 a = -9.8

x-direction y-direction

Section 3. Throwing a Ball Next, think about how a cannon ball flying through the air. Let's say the ball was thrown with an initial velocity of V with an angle of a.

You can break down V into Vx and Vy. Vx = cos a * V and Vy = sin a * V. The velocity on x direction is Vx. The acceleration on x is zero. The velocity on y direction is Vy. The acceleration on y is -9.8 m/s2. The following will simulate the movement of the ball: You can change the initial velocity and angle, and see how far the ball travels. Note that the ball will travel the farthest when the angle is 45 degrees. Displacement d = Vx * t Velocity v = Vx v = Vy + at Acceleration a=0 a = -9.8

x-direction y-direction

Section 4. Bouncing a Ball When you throw a ball on a rug, it doesn't bounce much. When you throw the ball to floor, it bounces higher. The reason is in the coefficient of bounce. Whenever two objects collide, the following equation is true: V2 = e * V1 where V1 is the velocity before collision, V2 is the velocity after collision, and e is a constant. This constant e is called the coefficient of bounce, which ranges from 0 to 1. When there is no friction between the two objects, e = 1. As the friction increases, the value of e approaches to

0. We can say that a rug has a lower coefficient of bounce than floor. Probably e = 0.2 in a rug, and e = 0.8 on floor.

Section 5. Supplementary lesson Quiz This is the supplementary lesson Quiz is the last quiz in this series of lesson before lesson 5. Good luck! You have studied the relationships between displacement, velocity, acceleration, and time. You also learned what force is, and how it is related to mass and acceleration. You have studied circular and projectile motions as well. 1. A ball was dropped from a 30 m tall building. a. What is the acceleration of the ball when t = 1.0? b. What is the velocity of the ball when t = 1.0? c. What is the displacement of the ball when t = 1.0? d. How long will it take for the ball to hit the ground? 2. A ball was dropped from a helicopter. The helicopter was moving horizontally with a constant velocity of 30 km/h (8.33 m/s) when the ball was released. a. What is the velocity of the ball on x-direction when t = 2.0, assuming that the ball has not hit the ground yet? b. What is the displacement of the ball on x-direction when t = 2.0, assuming that the ball has not hit the ground yet? c. What is the velocity of the ball when t = 2.0, assuming that the ball has not hit the ground yet? d. The ball hit the ground when t = 3.2. What was the height of the helicopter when the ball was dropped? e. If the height of the helicopter was 160 m, how long will it take for the ball to hit the ground? 3. Mike threw a baseball with an initial velocity of 80 km/h (22.22 m/s) with an angle of 30 degrees. Assume that the ball was released at the height of 1 m.

a. b. c. d.

i. What is the velocity of the ball on x direction when the ball was released? What is the velocity of the ball on y direction when the ball was released? How long will it take for the ball to hit the ground? How far has the ball traveled when it hit the ground?