NEWTON’S LAWS

Newton’s First Law (Law of Inertia)

• When no external unbalanced force acts on an
object, its velocity remains constant (speed &
direction)
OR
If no net force acts on an object, it maintains its
state of rest or its constant speed in a straight
line.
• Inertia is an object’s tendency to resist any
change in motion.
Inertia is dependent on mass-the larger the
mass the greater the inertia!
(In physics, mass is actually defined as the measure of an
objects inertia!)

The elephant has a

greater inertia than the
feather. It is harder to
change the motion of an
elephant than a feather!
 Newton’s First Law
(Why doesn’t this make sense to most people?)

What Aristotle believed .......... (what the “real” world leads

us to believe)
• Common experience led Aristotle (384-322 BC) to believe
that an object requires a continuous pushing or pulling to
keep it moving. If the pushing or pulling stops,
the object stops moving.
Galileo (1564-1642) Came up with simple thought
experiments with disproved this!
Experiment 1
1. Ball rolling up an incline slows down, ball rolling down
an incline speeds up.
Therefore an object on a horizontal plane should move at
a continuous velocity.

Ball speeding Ball slowing down

up
Experiment 2
2. If you roll a ball between two inclines, the ball rolls
down the slope and up to the opposite incline to
almost the same height. If you decrease the second incline the ball
should continue moving forever at a constant speed.

Ball speeding
up Ball continues moving
forever at a constant
velocity!
But this does not happen!

• Galileo reasoned that there is some type of resistance which

keeps the object from doing this. We call this resistance
friction!

FRICTION – force that acts in

the opposite direction of
motion.
What factors affect the amount of friction
between two objects as they slide over one
another?
Let’s find out!
 Force of Friction
(Kinetic or Sliding Friction)
• The force of friction( Ffr ) acts in the
opposite direction of the motion and is
dependent only on the weight and type of
surfaces in contact.
Ffr = FN µ
The coefficient of friction
 Newton’s Second Law
• The acceleration of an object is directly
proportional to the net force acting on it
and inversely proportional to its mass. The
direction of the acceleration is in the
direction of the net force.
 Newton’s Second Law

Fnet=ma
• If mass remains constant and the net force acting on the object
increases, the acceleration will ____________________.
Acceleration is __________________ proportional to net force!
• If the net force is constant but the mass is increased, the acceleration
will______________________.
Acceleration is __________________ proportional to mass!
 Newton’s 1st & Second Law
What’s the difference?
Newton’s 1st Law Newton’s 2nd Law
Sample 2nd Law Problem:
A horizontal push of 25 N is applied to a 12 kg crate which is
initially at rest. A kinetic frictional force of 3 N opposes the
motion of the crate. What is the acceleration of the crate?

Step I: FBD
Draw a free body diagram of all forces acting on object!

Step II: Calculate the magnitude of forces acting on the object!

Step III: Plug and chug! Plug the appropriate numbers into Newton’s
Second Law. Don’t forget direction if you are solving for a vector
quantity!
 Newton's Third Law of Motion
According to Newton's third law, for every action force
there is an equal (in size) and opposite (in direction)
reaction force.

Forces always come in pairs — known as "action-

reaction force pairs." Identifying and describing
action-reaction force pairs is a simple matter of
identifying the two interacting objects and making two
statements describing who is pushing on whom and in
which direction.
• For example, consider the interaction between a baseball bat and a
baseball.

The baseball forces the bat to the right

(an action); the bat forces the ball to the
left (the reaction). Note that the nouns in
the sentence describing the action force
switch places when describing the
reaction force.
Write the reaction force to the action force listed
below.

A) ACTION: The baseball pushes the bat to the left.

REACTION:
________________________________________
B) ACTION: The balloon walls push the air in.
REACTION:
___________________________________C
) ACTION: The earth pulls the skydiver down.
REACTION:
__________________________________
In the top picture, a physics student is pulling
upon a rope which is attached to a wall. In the
bottom picture, the physics student is pulling
upon a rope which is held by the Strongman. In
each case, the force scale reads 500 Newtons.
The physics student is pulling
a. with more force when the rope is attached
to the wall.
b. with more force when the rope is attached to
the Strongman.
c. the same force in each case.