Newton’s Laws of Motion and Momentum Page 1

Newton’s First Law

_______________ and _______________ cause a car to

come to rest when the engine is switched off. If these

forces were absent we believe that a body, once set in

motion, would go on moving forever with a constant speed in a straight line.

Key point
For example, a spaceship in deep space does not use its engines to
keep moving. Away from the influence of gravity, a spaceship moves at
a constant speed in a straight line unless it does use its engines. When
it does, the ejected exhaust gases apply a force
to change the speed or direction. Similarly an ice
skater can glide over the surface of ice at almost
constant speed in a straight line without any
effort because there is very little friction to change the
motion.

Inertia
It is the natural tendency of objects to keep on doing what they are doing. All
objects resist changes in their state of motion. This is often called the law of
inertia.

Passengers in a car have a lot of inertia and so they need seat

belts. If the car stops suddenly, the people will tend to keep on
moving (through the windscreen), unless the seat belts exert a
large force to stop them.

The larger the mass of a body, the more difficult it is to move it when at rest and to
stop it when in motion. Because of this we consider that the mass of a body
measures its inertia.
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Forces
When the forces of an object are unbalanced, there is an ___________________.

The ____________________ causes the object to change its _____________.

 If the engine force is ___________ to friction and air resistance, then the

object will move with a constant speed.

 If the force from the engine is _____________ than the friction and air

resistance, the speed of the car will increase (acceleration).

 If the force from the engine is _______________than the friction and air

resistance, the speed of the car will decrease (deceleration).

Newton’s Second Law

Newton’s second law of motion explains how the ________________of an object

changes when it is subjected to an ____________________________.

Key point
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Force, mass and acceleration are related by the equation:

Key point
Question 1: Mark’s favourite sport is driving a racing car.

(i) Find the resultant force acting on the car.

_______________________________________________________________

(ii) If the mass of the car is 1500kg, find its acceleration.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Question 2: A motorist on a road travelling at 30m/s applied the brakes and

managed to stop his car in 10 seconds, using a braking force of 1500N.

(a) What is the initial velocity of the car - _______________________.

(b) What is the final velocity of the car - ________________________.

(c) Calculate the acceleration of the car.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(d) Calculate the mass of the car.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________
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Question 3: A battery-operated model car is travelling at a uniform speed along

a level runway in the direction shown in the diagram. One external horizontal force
FA acting on the car is shown on the diagram.

(a) Force FA acting against the motion of the car is called ___________________.

(b)(i) Add to the diagram another horizontal force FE acting on the car in the
opposite direction to FA.

(ii) FE is referred to as the _____________________force.

(c) The resultant force acting on the car travelling at uniform speed is ________N.

(d)(i) State what happens to the speed of the car when force FE is bigger than force

FA - ____________________.

(ii) As force FE gets bigger, force FA gets ____________________but not to the

same extent.

(e) Calculate:

(i) The resultant force acting the model car given that force FE is 5 N and force FA
is 2 N.
_______________________________________________________________

(ii) The acceleration produced by this force given that the mass of the model car is
2 kg.
_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________
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Question 4: A sports car of mass 1500kg can

accelerate from rest to 20m/s in 4s.
(a) Calculate its acceleration.

_____________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(b) Calculate the force needed to produce this acceleration.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(c) A driver finds difficulty to drive a car when the ground is covered with ice. Why?

_______________________________________________________________

(d) Why is it important to wear a seat belt when driving a car?

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(e) Streamlining a car reduces fuel consumption. Why?

_______________________________________________________________

Question 5: Samantha uses the apparatus shown in the figure to investigate

the relationship between acceleration and force.

She hangs a 0.05N weight as shown and releases the glider. The data logger
measures the acceleration of the glider between the two light gates. She obtains
several readings by adding more weights each time. The results obtained are shown
in the table below.
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Question 5 (cont):

Force (N) 0 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30

Acceleration (m/s2) 0 0.30 0.58 0.87 1.20 1.51 1.80

(a) Plot a graph of acceleration (m/s2) on the y-axis against force (N) on the x-axis.

(b) What is the relationship between acceleration and force?

_______________________________________________________________

(c) Why is acceleration plotted on the y-axis and not on the x-axis?

_______________________________________________________________

(d) State two precautions which needs to take during this experiment.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(e) Use the graph to find the:

(i) acceleration of the glider when the force acting on it is 0.08N.

_______________________________________________________________

(ii) force acting on the glider which causes an acceleration of 1.30m/s2.

_______________________________________________________________

(f) Using the graph or otherwise, calculate the mass of the glider in kg.

_______________________________________________________________

(g) How will the graph change if a glider with a greater mass is used?

_______________________________________________________________
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Newton’s Third Law

According to Newton, whenever objects A and B interact with each other, they

exert __________ upon each other. When you sit in your chair, your body

exerts a _______________ force on the chair and the chair exerts an

_______ ________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 ____________ and ____________ forces and are the subject of Newton's

third law of motion.

point
Terminal velocity: Sky Diving Key

At the start there is only one force on the

skydiver. This is his _____________. This resultant force makes

him _____________.

As he travels faster, the air resistance ____________. Eventually,

the two forces are __________. He stops accelerating and travels at

a _______________________. This speed is called his

________________ ____________.
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When his parachute opens, the air resistance

_______________. This makes him ____________

_______________, until the 2 forces are equal

again. Because the two forces are balanced, he now

travels at a much lower _____________________.

This is now his new ______________________.

Terminal Velocity: Cars

The driver begins the journey by pressing the accelerator.

The driving force from the engine makes the car

_______________. As the speed of the car increases

the air resistance _______________ until the 2 forces

are ____________ and _______________. The car travels at a _____________

_______________ called its _______________ _______________.

Question 6: (a) What is the initial acceleration of the sky diver? ___________
(b) Complete:

(i) W means _______________ (ii) R means _______________

(iii) Both forces are measured in _______________

(c) As the sky diver accelerates downwards

(i) Which of the forces is greater? __________

(ii) Which of the above forces increases as he speeds down? __________

(d) Eventually the sky diver moves down at a constant speed.

(i) What is the resultant force acting on the sky diver? __________

(ii) Underline below the correct relationship between the forces R and W as the sky
diver falls at constant speed.
RW R=W RW
Newton’s Laws of Motion and Momentum Page 10

Question 7: The diagram

below shows the forces acting
on an aeroplane of mass
80000kg which is flying at
constant height.

(a) What are the forces labelled P and Q?

_______________________________________________________________

(b) What can be said about the size of the engine force and the force Q when the
aeroplane needs to accelerate forward?
_______________________________________________________________

(c) What is the weight of the aeroplane in Newtons?

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(d) What is the size of the lift force when the aeroplane is travelling at constant
height? Explain your answer.
_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(e) What is the total resultant force acting on the aeroplane when it is travelling at
constant velocity at constant height?
_______________________________________________________________

(f) The diagram below shows a fast

military aircraft using a braking
parachute on landing to help it slow
down on the runway.

Which force does this parachute increase to help to slow down the aircraft?

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________
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Question 8: The diagram in the figure shows a

man pushing against a wall.

(a) Draw the two contact forces acting between his

hands and the wall.

(b) The man exerts a force of 100N on the wall.

State the size of the other force.
______________________________________

(c) According to Newton’s ________ law these forces are equal and opposite.

(d) The figure shows a block of mass 3kg being pulled at constant speed. The
reading on the newton meter is 8.0N. The force F opposing the motion is shown by
the arrow.

(i) The force F is the force of friction and it is (less than 8.0N, equal to 8.0N,

greater than 8.0N)

(ii) As the block is pulled along, the reading on the newton meter changes to 8.6N.
Calculate the:
 resultant force;

__________________________________________________________

 acceleration of the block resulting from this force.

__________________________________________________________
Newton’s Laws of Motion and Momentum Page 12

Momentum
The momentum depends on two factors:

 The _______________ of the object.

 The _______________ of the object.

point
Key
The units of momentum are ____________________________________.

When unbalanced forces act on a body it accelerates;

vu
Force = mass x acceleration and because a  we can write:
t

Key point
The change in momentum is called the _______________

Key point

Practical effects explained by Newton’s 2nd law

The first safety features of a car are the crumple-

zones at the front and rear. The metal bodywork of
a car is designed to crumple or crush gradually
during a collision so that the force acting on the
people inside a car is spread out over a longer time
and so the force is smaller.
Newton’s Laws of Motion and Momentum Page 13

During a collision a passenger appears to be thrown

forward. When not wearing a seatbelt a passenger
strikes the very hard windscreen. Apart from the
risk of being cut by broken glass, the windscreen
applies a very large force over a very short time
and so causes serious injuries.

Question 10: Two students

wanted to test the safety of cars. A
toy car of mass 0.8kg travelling at
5m/s crashes into a wall and takes
0.01s to stop after hitting the wall.

(a) (i) Calculate the momentum of the car before the crash.

______________________________________________________________

(ii) What is the momentum of the car after the crash?

______________________________________________________________

(iii) Calculate the change in momentum.

______________________________________________________________

(iv) Calculate the force that develops.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(b) Now they attach a piece of plasticine to the front of the car and they observe
that the car takes 0.2 s to stop as the plasticine gets squeezed between the car and
the wall.
(i) Calculate the new force.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(ii) Complete the statement:

If the time of stopping ___________, the force acting against the car _________.
Newton’s Laws of Motion and Momentum Page 14

Question 11: Peter was driving home after a very day

of work. He spots a hedgehog causing the road, applies the
brakes, swerves his car and collides head-on into a rubble
wall. His car was moving at 15m/s when it came to a
complete stop on impact with the wall.

(i) Peter is not wearing his seatbelt and he hits the windscreen on impact. Which of
Newton’s Laws explain the forward movement of Peter on impact? State the law.
_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(ii) Name ONE other safety measure that is designed in cars to minimise injury to
drivers on collision.
_______________________________________________________________

(iii) The car came to complete stop in 1.2 seconds. Calculate the deceleration of the
car.
_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(iv) If the total mass of Peter and his car is 900kg, calculate the force of impact
that acted on the car.
_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(v) Suppose that Peter saw the hedgehog from a distance of 100m and that his
thinking time is 0.5 seconds. Calculate the braking distance that could have been
available for Peter to stop the car.
_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

(vi) Calculate the deceleration that would be needed to stop the car just next to the
hedgehog.
_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________
Newton’s Laws of Motion and Momentum Page 15

Question 12: (a) A man of mass 80kg is driving a

car at a velocity of 20m/s. The car crashes and the
driver is stopped by the seatbelt.
(i) Calculate the momentum of the man before the car
crashes.
_________________________________________

(ii) What is the momentum of the man when he is stopped?

_______________________________________________________________

(iii) Find the change in momentum.

_____________________________________________________________(1)

(iv) The driver is stopped by the seatbelt in 0.5s. Calculate the

force exerted by the seatbelt on the driver.
_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

(b) Explain why a seatbelt can decrease injury.

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Conservation of Momentum
The principle of conservation of momentum states that:
Key point
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