Newton’s Law

of Motion
 Newton’s Law
of Motion

Force is a push or a pull exerted by an

object on another. It is a vector quantity
because it has both magnitude and
direction.
 Newton’s Law
of Motion

Force that acts even if the interacting bodies are separated by

a distance is called noncontact or action at a distance force.
Example, the gravitational force, electrostatic force between
charged bodies, and magnetic force.
 Newton’s Law
of Motion

Force between two bodies that are in direct contact with each
other is called contact force. Example, the friction and force
exerted by your muscle when you lift and object.
 Newton’s Law
of Motion

There are four fundamental forces of nature:

gravitational force
electromagnetic force
strong nuclear force, and
weak nuclear force.
 Newton’s Law
of Motion

Gravitational force
The attractive force exerted by objects with mass
 Newton’s Law
of Motion

Electromagnetic force
The force that holds atoms and molecules together
 Newton’s Law
of Motion

Strong nuclear force

The force between protons and neutrons in a nucleus
 Newton’s Law
of Motion

Weak nuclear force

The force that plays a role in the radioactive decay of some nuclei
 Newton’s Law
of Motion
Attempts are being made to unify strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force,
and electromagnetic force under the grand unified theory.

Steps are also being undertaken to unite all fundamental forces under the
theory of everything. However, only the electromagnetic force and the weak nuclear
force have been successfully united to form the electroweak force through the efforts
of Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg in the 1970’s, reducing the
fundamental forces from four to three.
 Newton’s Law
of Motion
Isaac Newton was credited for being the first to describe the motion of massive
objects and formulate three laws of motion.
Newton’s laws of motion constitute the fundamental principles of dynamics, which
deals with force in relation to the motion of an object.
Newton’s first, second, and third laws of motion are also called the law of inertia,
the law of acceleration, and the law of interaction.
 The net force or resultant force is the vector sum of all the forces acting on a
body. A resultant force that is not equal to zero is considered unbalanced force.

The law of inertia states that, “a body at rest will remain at rest and a body in
motion will continue to move with constant velocity unless acted upon by an
unbalanced external force.”

Inertia is the property of a body that tends to resist change in its state of motion.
Mass is a measure of inertia. The greater the mass, the greater the inertia. The
greater the inertia, the harder it is to change the state of motion of a body.
 The net force or resultant force is the vector sum of all the forces acting on a
body. A resultant force that is not equal to zero is considered unbalanced force.

The law of inertia states that, “a body at rest will remain at rest,” and “a body
in motion will continue to move with constant velocity unless acted upon by an
unbalanced external force.”
 The law of inertia is concerned with the natural tendency of objects to keep
their states, whether at rest or moving. A ball stays in place unless it is kicked. An
object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced external
force.
 Newton’s law of inertia as well as Republic Act 9750 (otherwise known as
The Seat Belt Use Act of 1999) are the two reasons why we should use seat belts. A
person inside a car moves with the same velocity as the car. If the car collides with a
hard object, the net force acting on the car causes it to stop. The passenger will
continue to move at this velocity unless a force stops him. This force is provided by
the seat belt. When worn properly, the seat belt helps spread the stopping force to
bigger and sturdier parts of the body; the ribcage and the pelvis; to minimize
damage.
Inertial Reference Frame
A frame of reference where Newton’s first law of motion holds is
called an inertial reference frame. Thus, a frame reference that is at rest
or moving with constant velocity with respect to an observer is inertial.
 Law of Acceleration

The second law goes on a step further and states that when a net
force acts on a body, it will be accelerated in the direction of that force. The
acceleration of the body is directly proportional to the net force acting upon it.
Furthermore, the acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the body.
 Law of Acceleration

The first part of the second law implies that the magnitude of the
net force (𝐹) acting on a body and the magnitude of the acceleration (𝑎) it
produced are directly proportional to each other. Recall in algebra that two
quantities are directly proportional to each other if their ratio is constant (𝑘). Thus
𝐹
for a constant mass, 𝑎 = 𝑘
 Law of Acceleration
Equivalently, if a force (𝐹1 ) is applied to a body at one time and a
force (𝐹2 ) is applied to the same body at another time, then,
𝑭𝟏 𝒂𝟏
=
𝑭𝟐 𝒂𝟐
If a car is pushed with a certain force 𝐹 and is pushed twice as hard at
another time, the initial acceleration of the car will be doubled.
 Law of Acceleration
If the same force is
applied to two different objects
with masses 𝑚1 and 𝑚2 , then,
𝑚1 𝑎1 = 𝑚2 𝑎2

The second part of Newton’s second law of motion implies that the
magnitude of the acceleration of a body produced by a net force acting on it is
inversely proportional to its mass. The greater the mass of a body, the lesser the
acceleration. Recall in algebra that two quantities are inversely proportional to each
other if their product is constant (𝑘). Thus, for a constant force, 𝒎𝒂 = 𝒌
 Law of Acceleration
If the same force is
applied to two different objects
with masses 𝑚1 and 𝑚2 , then,
𝒎𝟏 𝒂𝟏 = 𝒎𝟐 𝒂𝟐

The second part of Newton’s second law of motion implies that the
magnitude of the acceleration of a body produced by a net force acting on it is
inversely proportional to its mass. The greater the mass of a body, the lesser the
acceleration. Recall in algebra that two quantities are inversely proportional to each
other if their product is constant (𝑘). Thus, for a constant force, 𝒎𝒂 = 𝒌
 Law of Acceleration
Newton’s second law of motion tells us that the acceleration of a body is
dependent upon two variables: the net force (𝐹) acting upon the body and its mass
(𝑚). The combined effect of these two variables on the acceleration pf a body may
be written in equation form.
𝑭 = 𝒎𝒂
 Law of Acceleration
The SI unit force is 1 newton (N).
A force of 1 N is the force that will give a 1 kg body an acceleration of 1𝑚Τ𝑠 2 .
A smaller unit of force is the dyne.
A force of 1 dyne will give a 1g body an acceleration of 1𝑐𝑚Τ𝑠 2 .

1 N = 1 𝑘𝑔 × 𝑚Τ𝑠 2
1 dyne = 1 𝑔 × 𝑐𝑚Τ𝑠 2
1 N = 105 dynes
 Law of Acceleration
There are important things that must be remembered about 𝑭 = 𝒎𝒂. First, the
net force is the resultant of all the forces acting on a body. It should not include the
forces being exerted by the body on another. Second, force and acceleration are
vector quantities. Hence, one can write a separate equation for each component of
the force and the corresponding component of the acceleration, in 3-D space. Thus,

σ 𝑭𝒙 = 𝒎𝒂𝒙 ; σ 𝑭𝒚 = 𝒎𝒂𝒚 ; σ 𝑭𝒛 = 𝒎𝒂𝒛

Mass and Weight
Mass and weight are often misused or interchanged in ordinary
conversation. However, mass and weight are two different physical
quantities.
The weight of a body on Earth is measured of the force of gravity
exerted by Earth on it. It is a vector quantity and is always directed
towards the center of the Earth.
Mass and Weight
On the other hand, mass is the amount of matter a body contains.
It is a scalar quantity.
The SI unit for mass is the kilogram. Mass and weight are related
as, w=mg. Hence, the unit of weight is 1 𝑘𝑔 × 𝑚Τ𝑠 2 , which is
equivalent to newton.
The mass of a body is constant, while its weight depends on the
value of the acceleration due to gravity.
 Law of Interaction
Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal but
opposite reaction. When body A exerts a force on body B, body B will exert an equal
but oppositely directed force on body A.

This pair of forces is called action-reaction pair. Action and reaction forces
are equal in magnitude but opposite directions and are assigned arbitrarily. It is
important to note that action and reaction forces act on two different bodies. Because
of this, they do not cancel out.
 Law of Interaction
If you push hard on a wall by a force of 5 N, the wall in turn pushes you back
by a force of 5N.

If the weight of an object is 100 N, it means that Earth is pulling the object
down by a force of 100N. In turn, the object is pulling Earth up by a force of 100N.