Chapter 2

NEWTONS LAWS

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Newtons Laws

To understand Newtons laws

consider the device, linear
air track in 1D.

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Linear Air track

A triangular hollow beam of 2 m with holes to emit gentle stream
of air
A rider floats on it when air is turned on
Air viscosity is 5000 times less than oil
The rider behaves like an isolated object
It stays at rest and when gently pushed it
moves with constant velocity
If the rider is released from rest it continues
to move slowly and evenly without gaining
or losing speed, contrary to moving bodies
are stopped by friction.
Thus an object moves uniformly in space
when there are no external influences.
Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Newtons first law

Motion has meaning only with respect to a particular
coordinate system.
In air track experiment the rider moves with respect to
the track at rest
any coordinate system which is moving w.r.t. the track
with constant velocity, an inertial system
Thus

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Newtons second law

Consider the rider with a rubber band

If
Its
If the rider is changed, the acceleration is different but remains
constant as before.
Thus the acceleration depends on
called mass.
Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

If m1 and m2 are the mass of the first and second rider

respectively, then

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Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Newtons third law

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Eg 2.1 Astronauts in space

Captain A measured the position of the object with his spaceship as origin as

He concludes
Further

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Astronauts in space-cont.

Force is not arbitrary

Newton's laws hold good only in inertial frames
Hence, both A and B set to check their observations.
A released a pencil from rest and found that it floats without
acceleration. Hence, he concludes that his spaceship is in inertial
frame

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Astronauts in space-cont.
But what about B? Consider the sketch below

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Astronauts in space-cont.
So B observed the apparent force,
Or

Thus B found that he

In general, if R is the vector from the origin of an inertial system to the
origin of another coordinate system, then

which means that the second coordinate system

is also inertial. Also
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System of units

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Applications of Newtons laws

1. Divide the systems /objects into smaller systems

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Applications of Newtons laws - cont.

Consider the example given below

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Applications of Newtons laws - cont.

and

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Applications of Newtons laws - cont.

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Applications of Newtons laws - cont.

For

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The vertical acceleration is 0,

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Freight train- cont.

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Freight train- cont.

Consider

With acceleration

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Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Consider the pulley system shown

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Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

The

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Differentiating twice w.r.to time

From all the above equations

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Acceleration can change instantaneously, but velocity and position

cannot.
Hence,

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Also

Thus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

The object is to know the forces which are important in everyday mechanics

The force

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Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Or

where g =

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Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Thus the turtle weight increases as the elevator

accelerates up and decreases when moving down.

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

aM is the acceleration of the block

aS is the acceleration of the string
The equations of the motion are

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Hence,

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The Then equations are

Hence,

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Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus

The forces are as shown.

and the
radial equation of motion is
Since, M should be in vertical equilibrium
and
Or
,

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or
Consider a solution,

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An alternate method is

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Thank you

Prof S. Karthiyayini, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus