MODULE 5 GENERAL PHYSICS 1

The following are the lessons contained in this module:

1. NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION AND ITS APPLICATION
2. NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION
3. APPLYING NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

 Apply Newton’s 1st law to obtain quantitative and qualitative conclusions about the contact and noncontact forces
acting on a body in equilibrium (STEM_GP12N-Ie-33)
 Apply Newton’s 2nd law and kinematics to obtain quantitative and qualitative conclusions about the velocity
and acceleration of one or more bodies, and the contact and noncontact forces acting on one or more bodies
(STEM_GP12N-Ie-36)
 Identify action-reaction pairs (STEM_GP12N-Id-31)
 Solve problems using Newton’s Laws of motion in contexts such as, but not limited to, ropes and pulleys, the
design of mobile sculptures, transport of loads on conveyor belts, force needed to move stalled vehicles,
determination of safe driving speeds on banked curved roads (STEM_GP12N-Ie-38)

Lesson 6
NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION AND ITS APPLICATION

A body is said to be in motion (or moving) when it is position changes continuously with respect to a stationary
object taken as reference point. The study of motion is kinematics, but kinematics only describes the way objects move—
their velocity and their acceleration. Dynamics considers the forces that affect the motion of moving objects and systems.
Newton’s laws of motion are the foundation of dynamics. These laws provide an example of the breadth and simplicity of
principles under which nature functions. They are also universal laws in that they apply to similar situations on Earth as
well as in space. Many things can be explained by the use of actual observations and some are explained by simple common
sense.
The laws were developed by Sir Isaac Newton in the late 1600s. Isaac Newton’s (1642–
1727) laws of motion were just one part of the monumental work that has made him legendary. The
development of Newton’s laws marks the transition from the Renaissance into the modern era. This
transition was characterized by a revolutionary change in the way people thought about the physical
universe. Newton made use of the work of his predecessors, which enabled him to develop laws of
motion, discover the law of gravity, invent calculus, and make great contributions to the theories of
light and color. It is amazing that many of these developments were made with Newton working
alone, without the benefit of the usual interactions that take place among scientists today.
NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION (Law of Inertia) states that an object’s motion will not change unless an
unbalanced force acts on the object. If the object is at rest, it will stay at rest. If the object is in motion, it will stay in
motion and its velocity will remain the same. In other words, neither the direction nor the speed of the object will change
as long as the net force acting on it is zero.

 INERTIA is the tendency of an object to resist changes in its velocity: whether in motion or motionless. Objects
wants to stay in rest or motion unless an outside force causes a change.
o For example, if you roll a ball, it will continue rolling unless friction or something else stops it by force.
Let’s look at another situation. Refer to for this example. Why do we wear seat belts?
Obviously, they’re there to protect us from injury in case of a car accident. If a car is
traveling at 80 km/h, the driver is also traveling at 80 km/h. When the car suddenly
stops, an external force is applied to the car that causes it to slow down. But there is
no force acting on the driver, so the driver continues to travel at 80 km/h. The seat belt
is there to counteract this and act as that external force to slow the driver down along
with the car, preventing them from being harmed.

Think about what happens when you are riding in a car that stops suddenly. Your body moves forward on the seat.
Why? The brakes stop the car but not your body, so your body keeps moving forward because of inertia. That’s why it’s
important to always wear a seat belt. The car keeps changing direction, but the riders keep moving in the same direction
as before. They slide to the opposite side of the car as a result.

Why then, do we observe everyday objects in motion slowing down and becoming motionless seemingly
without an outside force?
It’s a force we sometimes cannot see – FRICTION.

Friction is a force between two surfaces that are sliding, or trying to slide, across each other. For example, when
you try to push a book along the floor, friction makes this difficult. Friction
always works in the direction opposite to the direction in which the object is
moving, or trying to move.
• Friction has both negative and positive aspects. Friction reduces the
efficiency of machines. On the other hand, we couldn't walk or run
without friction.
• There are two types of friction: kinetic friction and static friction.
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Kinetic friction is the friction encountered when surfaces slide against one
another.
• The magnitude of the force of kinetic friction depends on the normal
force.
• As the figure below indicates, the force of kinetic friction is proportional
to the normal force: Doubling the normal force doubles the force of
kinetic friction.

• The constant µk in the equation is referred to as the coefficient of kinetic friction. The larger the coefficient of
friction, the greater the force of friction.

Static friction is the force that opposes the sliding of one

nonmoving surface past another.
• Like kinetic friction, static friction is due to microscopic
surface irregularities.
• As the figure shows, the force of static friction can have
values ranging from zero to some well-defined maximum.
• A stationary object begins to move when the applied force
equals the maximum force of static friction. Once an object
is moving, kinetic friction comes into play.
• The maximum force that static friction can exert is given by
the following expression:

 In this equation, µs is the coefficient of static friction.

 In general, µs is greater than µk. This means that the force of static friction is usually greater than the force of
kinetic friction.

Friction plays an important role in driving safety. When a car is moving with its tires rolling freely, the friction between the
tires and the road is static friction. Why is this so? Even though the car and tires are moving forward, at any instant the
bottom of the tire is at rest with respect to the ground.

In the absence of a force of friction, a moving body would continue its motion with the same speed and direction - forever! #MayForever 😊

NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION ( Law of Acceleration) states that the net
force of an object is equal to the product of its mass and acceleration, or Force = mass x
acceleration. It mathematically states the cause and effect relationship between force
and changes in motion. Newton’s second law of motion is more quantitative and is used
extensively to calculate what happens in situations involving a force.
 When mass is in kilograms and acceleration is in m/s², the unit of force is in
newtons (N).
 One newton is equal to the force required to accelerate one kilogram of mass at one meter/second/second.

SAMPLE PROBLEM:
How much force is needed to accelerate a 1400 kilogram car 2 m/s²?
1. Write the formula: F=mxa
2. Fill in given numbers and units: F = 1400 kg x 2 meters per second/second
3. Solve for the unknown: = 2800 kg- m/s² or 2800 N
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If mass remains constant, doubling the acceleration, doubles the force. If force remains
constant, doubling the mass, halves the acceleration.

Newton’s 2nd Law proves that different masses accelerate to the earth at the
same rate, but with different forces.
• We know that objects with different masses accelerate to the ground at the same
rate.
• However, because of the 2nd Law, we know that they don’t hit the ground with the
same force.

 Mass characterizes the inertial properties of a body. The greater

the mass, the greater the force needed to cause a given acceleration.

 Weight is a force exerted on a body by the pull of the earth.

w = mass (m) x acceleration due to gravity (g)

 Mass and weight are related: Bodies having large mass also have
large weight. A large stone is hard to throw because of its large
mass, and hard to lift off the ground because of its large weight.

NEWTON’S THIRD LAW OF MOTION ( Law of

Interaction/Action and Reaction) states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
This means that forces always act in pairs. According to Newton, whenever objects A and B interact
with each other, they exert forces upon each other. When you sit in your chair, your body exerts a
downward force on the chair and the chair exerts an upward force on your body.

There are two forces resulting from this interaction - a force on the chair and a force on
your body. These two forces are called action and reaction forces. Flying gracefully through the air,
birds depend on Newton’s third law of motion. As the birds push down on the air with their wings,
the air pushes their wings up and gives them lift.

The reaction of a rocket is an application of the third law

of motion. Various fuels are burned in the engine,
producing hot gases.

The hot gases push against the inside tube of the rocket
and escape out the bottom of the tube. As the gases move
downward, the rocket moves in the opposite direction.

PRACTICE EXERCISE:
1. Find the force needed to accelerate a 100 kg mass by 20 m/s². Ans: 2000 N
2. 2. An aircraft has a mass of 500 000 kg. The total force from its jet engines is 800 000 N. What is its acceleration?
Ans: 1.6 m/s²
3. A net force of 16 N causes a mass to accelerate at a rate of 5 m/s2. Determine the mass. Ans: 3.2 kg
4. What is the force on a 1000 kg elevator that is in free fall? Ans: 9800 kg- m/s2 or 9800 N

Lesson 7
NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION
If the planets are orbiting the sun, what force is keeping them in orbit? What
force keeps the moon in its orbit?

NEWTON’S LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION. Any two objects

attract each other with a gravitational force, proportional to the product of their
masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
The force acts in the direction of the line connecting the centers of the masses.

Henry Cavendish’s experiment determined the proportionality constant G in

1798.
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The Value of G:

G= 6.67 x 10-11 N m2 / kg2

Change of Gravitational Force with Distance

Law of universal gravitation is known as an inverse

square law.

PRACTICE EXERCISE:
Two spheres A and B of mass 35kg and 26 kg, respectively are 60m apart.
1. What force does one exert on the other? ANS: 1.69 x 10-11 N
2. If the mass of sphere A is tripled and the distance between the spheres is quadrupled how does the force
change? ANS: FCHANGE = FFINAL – FINITIAL => FCHANGE = 3.16 x 10-12 N - 1.69 x 10-11 N= -1.37 x 10-11 N

Lesson 8
APPLYING NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION
FORCE - push or pull
 is an interaction between two bodies or between a body and its environment
 a vector quantity, with magnitude and direction

The force, F, which acts at an angle Ɵ from the x-axis, may be replaced by its rectangular component vectors Fx and Fy.

SAMPLE PROBLEM:
The finalist for the boxing tournaments are fighting over a champion's belt.
The figure (a) shows the horizontal force each wrestler applies to the belt, as
viewed from above. The forces have magnitudes F1= 250 N, F2= 50 N, and
F3= 120 N. Find the x- and y-components of the net force on the belt, and its
magnitude.
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Assessment #5
NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

PART I. MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a separate
sheet of paper.

1. The same net force is applied to object A and object B. The observed accelerations of the two objects are
not the same; object A has an acceleration three times that of object B. Which of the following is correct?
A. Object A has three times the mass of object B.
B. Objects A has one-third the mass of object B.
C. There may be some other unexpected force accelerating A.
D. There may be some other unexpected force decelerating B.
2. Which of the following statements correctly states Newton's first law of motion?
A. Every object retains its state of rest or its state of accelerated straight-line motion unless acted upon by
an unbalanced force.
B. Every object retains its state of rest or its state of accelerated straight-line motion unless acted upon by
a balanced force.
C. Every object retains its state of rest or its state of uniform straight-line motion unless acted upon by a
balanced force.
D. Every object retains its state of rest or its state of uniform straight-line motion unless acted upon by an
unbalanced force.
3. Which of the following statements are true of both weight and mass?
A. Weight is a force, mass is a measure of inertia.
B. Mass depends on gravity, weight does not.
C. Heavier objects weigh more than light objects.
D. Gravity is necessary to measure both weight and mass.
4. If an astronaut, freely floating in space, tries to throw away a spent fuel container that has the same mass
as the astronaut himself, what will happen to the astronaut?
A. Nothing happens to the astronaut. He will stay where he is and the container will fly away at the speed
given to it by the astronaut.
B. The astronaut will recoil slightly but quickly stop while the container continues moving away at a constant
speed.
C. The astronaut moves away in an opposite direction just as fast as the container moves.
D. Nothing happens to the astronaut or container. The astronaut cannot throw the container since he has
no firm ground to stand on.
5. A brick slides on a horizontal surface. Which of the following will increase the magnitude of the frictional
force on it?
A. Putting a second brick on top C. Increasing the surface area of contact
B. Decreasing the surface area of contact D. Decreasing the mass of the brick

PART 2. PROBLEM SOLVING. Solve for what is asked in the word problem. Show your complete solution on
a separate sheet of paper.

1. A waitress shoves a ketchup bottle with mass 0.45 kg to her right along a smooth, level lunch counter.
The bottle leaves her hand moving at 2.8 m/s, then slows down as it slides because of a constant
horizontal friction force exerted on it by the countertop. It slides for 1.0 m before coming to rest. What
are the magnitude and direction of the friction force acting on the bottle?

2. A 2.49 X 104 N Nissan Navarra traveling in the -direction makes an emergency stop; the x-component
of the net force acting on it is -1.83 x 104 N. What is its acceleration?