CHAPTER – 4 NOTES

LAWS OF MOTION

Introduction

When we look around us, we find the planets moving around the sun in orderly
manner, movement of machinery parts in a factory, phases of the moon - all of
them are following certain laws. They all are acted upon by certain forces.

In the preceding two chapters, we described motion in terms

of displacement, velocity and acceleration, i.e., we used kinematic quantities for
describing motion without considering what might cause that motion. In order to
understand this beauty, let us take a step forward by understanding "Force and
laws of motion".

Newton’s First Law of Motion

According to this law, "A body continuous in its state of rest or constant velocity
unless it is disturbed by external influence (force)". In simple words, if no
unbalanced external force acts on a body at rest, it will remain at rest and if it is
moving with uniform motion, it will continue to do so, or if the resultant force on a
body is zero, it remains unaccelerated.
Inertia and mass

Consider two bodies of unequal masses, say a table tennis ball and a cricket ball. If
both balls are pushed with equal effort for same time, a cricket ball will have much
smaller velocity as compared to the other ball. Cricket ball has resisted more than
table tennis ball. Or, cricket ball has larger inertia than table tennis ball. So, we can
generalise, a heavier body has larger inertia than a lighter body. Larger the
mass, the larger is the inertia. So, mass is a measure of inertia.

Inertia and its Types

There are three types of inertia:

• (i) Inertia of rest

• (ii) Inertia of motion
• (iii) Inertia of direction

1. Inertia of Rest

It is inability of a body by virtue of which it cannot move by itself. A body at rest

remains at rest and cannot start moving on its own due to inertia of rest.

Applications

The passengers in a bus fall backward when it starts suddenly. This is because the
sudden start of the bus brings motion to the bus as well as to our feet in contact
with the floor of the bus. But the rest of our body opposes this motion because of
inertia so they fall backwards.

2. Inertia of Motion

It is inability of a body in motion to stop by itself. A body in uniform motion can

neither get accelerated nor get retarded on its own. It also cannot come to rest on
its own.

Applications

A man jumping from moving bus falls forward due to inertia of motion. As his feet
touch the ground lower part of the body comes to rest, while the remaining parts
of the body keep on moving. As a result he falls down in the direction of motion of
the bus.

3. Inertia of Direction

It is inability of a body by virtue of which it cannot change its direction of motion by

itself.

Applications

When a car makes a sharp turn at a high speed, the driver tends to get thrown to
other side due to directional inertia. When the car is moving in the straight line, the
driver tends to continue in straight line motion. When the unbalanced force is
applied by the engine to change the direction of motion of car. The driver slips to
one side of the seat due to the inertia of his body.

Momentum

It is defined as the quantity of motion contained in a body. It is measured as the

product of mass of the body and its velocity and has the same direction as that of
the velocity. It is a vector quantity. It is represented by p. The SI unit of momentum
is kg-m/s.

p = mv

Suppose you catch a cricket ball and a tennis ball when dropped from same height.
We find that it is easier to catch a tennis ball than the cricket ball. This determines
that mass is an important factor that determines the effect of force on its motion.

Force

When we look around us and observe state of rest or motion of bodies, we find that
nothing moves on its own. When we push or pull a body

1. It may change its state of rest or of uniform motion.

2. It may change its direction of motion.
3. It may change its shape.
We say that we exert a force on a body if we push or pull it. This push or pull may
be gentle or hard, so force has a magnitude. This push or pull may be in different
directions, so force has a direction. It means force is a vector quantity. The SI unit
of force is newton represented by 'N'. The CGS unit of force is Dyne.

Note: 1N = 105 dyne

Force is an entity which when applied on a body change or tends to change a

body’s, State of rest, State of uniform motion, Direction of motion, Shape.

(i). Balance Force: When a number of forces acting simultaneously on a body do

not bring about any change in its state of rest or of uniform motion along a straight
line, then the forces acting on the body are said to be balanced forces. Balanced
forces do not produce any acceleration.

(ii). Unbalanced Force: When a number of forces acting simultaneously on a body

bring about a change in its state of rest or of uniform motion along a straight line,
then these forces acting on the body are said to be unbalanced forces. To
accelerate an object, an unbalanced force is required.

(iii). Resultant Force: When two or more forces act on a body simultaneously, then
the single force which produces the same effect as produced by all the forces acting
together is known as the resultant force.

Newton's Second Law of Motion

This law states that "The rate of change of momentum of a body is directly
proportional to the applied force and it takes place in the direction in which the
force acts.”

Mathematical Formulation of Second Law

Consider a body of mass m moving with some initial velocity v. If an unbalanced

force F is applied, the velocity will change from v to v + Δv. The change in
momentum will be Δp = mΔv which changes from p (initial momentum) to p + Δp
(final momentum).
Application of Newton's Second Law of Motion

1. Cricket player lowers his hand while catching the ball: The player
increases the time during which the high velocity of moving ball reduces to
zero. If we increase t, F decreases, so force of impact on palm of the fielder
reduces.

2. A karate player can break a pile of tiles with a single blow of his
hand: Because he strikes the pile of tiles with his hand very fast, during which
the entire momentum of the fast-moving hand is reduced to zero in very short
interval of time. This exerts a very large force on the pile of tiles which is
sufficient to break them, by a single blow of his hand.

3. In a high jump athletic event, the athletes are allowed to fall either on a
sand bed or cushioned bed: This is because to increase the time of athletes
fall to stop after making the high jump, which decreases rate of change of
momentum and decreases force of impact.

Impulse

The product of force and time, which is the change in momentum of the body
remains a measurable quantity. This product is called impulse.
 Impulse = Force × time duration

= Change in momentum

Newton's third Law of Motion

According to this law, "To every action there is always equal and opposite
reaction".

Let two bodies 1 & 2 are interaction together, then

F12 = -F21

(Force on body 2 by 1) = -(force on body 1 by 2)

If masses of both bodies be m1 & m2 then

𝑑𝑣1 𝑑𝑣2
m 1( )=m2( )
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

Action and Reaction

When there is a force exerted by body I on body II, there is also a force exerted by
body II on body I. These forces are equal in magnitude and act in opposite
directions. Such a pair of forces is called an action-reaction pair. Any of the two
forces may be called the action, the other will be the reaction.

Applications of Third Law

• Recoiling of a gun: When a bullet is fired from a gun, it exerts a forward force
on the bullet and the bullet exerts an equal and opposite force on the gun.
Due to high mass of the gun, it moves a little distance backward and gives a
backward jerk to the shoulder of the gunman.

• To walk, we press the ground in backward direction with foot: When we

walk on the ground, our foot pushes the ground backward and in return the
ground pushes our foot forward.

Significance of Newton’s Laws

 1. The first law talks about the natural state of motion of a body, i.e., motion
along a straight line with constant speed.

2. The second law says that if a body is not following its natural state of motion,
then there has to be a net unbalanced external force acting on the body.

3. The third law talks about the nature of the force, i.e., forces exist in pairs.

Conservation of Momentum

According to conservation law of linear momentum, “The total momentum of an

isolated system of interacting particles is conserved.” In other words, “for an
isolated system the initial momentum of the system is equal to the final
momentum of the system”.

Consider two objects A and B of masses m1 and m2 moving along the same
direction at different velocities u1 and u2 respectively.

m1u1 + m2u1 = m1v1 + m2v2

Total momentum before collision = Total momentum after collision

Applications of Law of Conservation of Linear Momentum

• (i) Recoil Velocity of a Gun

• (ii) Rocket propulsion
Friction

It is a general observation that when you try to slide a heavy box across the floor,
the box does not move at all unless you push it with a certain minimum force. This
means that there exists a certain opposition to the motion of box on the ground.
This opposing force acts between the surface of box and ground and is called force
of friction.
Factors Affecting Friction

• Nature of the medium of contact between two bodies

• Normal reaction
• Area of contact

Type of Friction

(i). Kinetic Friction

The kind of friction that acts when a body slides over a surface is called a kinetic
friction force. The magnitude of the kinetic friction force usually increases when
the normal force increases. This is why it takes more force to slide a box full of books
across the floor than to slide the same box when it is empty.

The magnitude of the kinetic friction force fk is found experimentally to be

approximately proportional to the magnitude N of the normal force. In such cases,
we represent the relationship by the equation

fk = μkN

where μk is a constant called the coefficient of kinetic friction.

(ii). Static Friction

The frictional forces between two surfaces in contact before a relative motion has
started, are referred to as static friction. Static friction is always a little more than
dynamic friction.

The magnitude of static frictional force is also proportional to normal force.

fs = μsN

(iii). Rolling Friction

When a spherical body or a circular ring roll over a horizontal plane without slipping
then applied friction by the surface on body is called rolling friction. Rolling friction
is much smaller than static or sliding friction. That is why, discovery of the wheel
was a major milestone in the history.