Laws of Physics

S U BT ITLE
Concepts of
Vertical motion,
Horizontal motion
and Projectile motion
Aristotle is one of most influential Greek
philosophers whose ideas were the basis
for many concepts that time.
Motion is an object’s change in position with respect
to time. Natural motion or a Violent motion.
Natural Motion
An object will move and will
eventually return to its natural state
depending on the composition that
the object is made of. An object
made of material similar to earth
will return to earth or an object that
is similar to air will return to the
air.
Violent motion
An object will move if an
external force such as
pushing or pulling is applied
to it. No motion will take
place unless there is a
'mover' in contact with an
object.
Projectile Motion
…The motion of an object is parallel to the ground until it
is the object's time to fall back into the ground. …An
impetus will be kept by the object until such time that the
initial force is forgotten, and the object returns to its
natural state to stop moving and fall to the ground.
Example
A cannon is fired which give the cannonball an impetus that
will dictate its course until such time that the impetus is
forgotten, and the cannonball will naturally fall to the
ground.
Question?
What ideas challenged the
Aristotelian principle of motion?

there is a cause and effect

Aristotle says that “all men suppose
what is called wisdom (sophia) to
deal with the first causes (aitia) and
the principles (archai) of things” 
Galilean Conceptions vs.
Aristotelian Conceptions
 Galileo proved that:
• an object in uniform motion will travel a distance that is
proportional to the time it will take to travel;
• a uniformly accelerating object will travel at a speed
proportional to some factor of time; and
• an object in motion, if unimpeded, will continue to be in
motion; an external force is not necessary to maintain the
motion.
 Galileo's Conceptions of Motion
• Horizontal motion
An object in motion, if unimpeded, will continue to be in motion,
and an external force is not necessary to maintain the motion. If the
Earth’s surface is very flat and extended infinitely, objects that are
pushed will not be impeded. Thus, the objects will continue to
move.
Vertical motion
In the absence of a resistance, objects would fall not depending on
their weight, but in the time of fall. Also, if the object encountered a
resistive force from a fluid equal or greater than its weight, it will
slow down and reaches a uniform motion until it reaches the bottom
and stops.
Projectile motion
Galileo believed that a
projectile is a combination of
uniform motion in the
horizontal direction and
uniformly accelerated motion
in the vertical direction. If it
is not impeded, it will
continue to move even
without an applied force.
Explore!
In a vacuum chamber, a 1-kg object and 10-kg object was dropped
at a certain height and at the same time. Which of the following
objects will reach the ground first?
Try it!
Who has a more acceptable view of falling objects, Aristotle or
Galileo? Try to test it in the following activities below. Take note that
in every activity, both objects should be dropped at the same time and
at the same height.
1. Drop a book and a flat sheet of paper coming.
2. Drop a book and a sheet of paper crumbled to a ball.
3. Drop a book with a small flat sheet of paper on top of it.
In all three cases, which object reach the ground first? Whose view is
more acceptable then, and why?
On his experiment, he had
observed the following:
A ball rolling down an inclined
plane increases its speed by the
same value after every second.
For example, the speed of a
rolling ball was found to
increase by 2 m/s every second.
This means that the rolling ball
would have the following speeds
for every given second
• As the inclined plane becomes steeper, the acceleration of
the rolling ball increases.
• The maximum acceleration of the rolling ball was reached
when the inclined plane was positioned vertically as if the
ball is simply falling
• These observations lead Galileo to conclude that regardless
of the mass of objects and air resistance, falling objects
would always have uniform acceleration.
 Try this!
1. Hold a book and a piece of paper at the same height, then drop them
simultaneously. Did the objects reach the ground at the same time? If
no, which object reached the ground first?
2. Now, perform the same procedure, but this time, crumple the paper.
Did the objects reach the ground at the same time? If no, which
object reached the ground first?
3. Given two one peso coins, released at the same time, Coin A is
dropped while Coin B is thrown horizontally coming from the same
height. Which one do you think would reach the ground first?
 Sample problem:
If an object falls with an acceleration of 5 m/s2 what would be its
speed after 3 s given its starts at 0 m/s at 0s?
V = gt
= (5 m/s^2)(3 s)
= 15 m/s
What do you think?
• If a speedometer is attached to a falling object and the reading
increases by 10 m/s every second, what is the object’s acceleration?
V = gt
V=?
10 m/s = g (1s)
G = V/T
= 10 m/s
• A body with uniform acceleration changes its speed by a
constant value.
• Galileo proved that when objects are released
simultaneously from a certain height, they reach the
ground at the same time, regardless of their masses and
air resistance.
• Galileo discovered that all objects fall with the uniform
acceleration in vacuum.
When does an object accelerate? Does the term only refer
to fast-moving objects?
Acceleration in everyday usage
In everyday terms, acceleration refers to objects which are moving so fast.
Acceleration in physics
In physics, an object that moves fast may not be accelerating.
Acceleration
is the rate at which an object’s velocity changes. Velocity is the rate at which
an object changes position. Acceleration indicates how fast an object changes
its velocity. Just like velocity, it is a vector quantity, which means it has both
magnitude and direction. Magnitude refers to the amount or size of a quantity.
• An object accelerates when its velocity changes in magnitude, direction, or
both magnitude and direction.
 Learn about it!
• Objects that move in uniform circular motion have
constant speeds but still accelerate because they constantly
change in direction as they go around the circular path.
• Satellites orbiting the Earth maintain a nearly circular orbit
and travel very fast at an almost constant speed like the
International Space Station which moves at approximately
27 000 km/hr.
 Test yourselves
1. One of the football players ran the field from end to end within 1 minute
with a speed of 3.7 m/s. How long is the field? (10points)
2. In a drag race, a dragster reached a quarter mile (402m) marker at a speed
of 94m/s. What was his acceleration? How long did the run take?
3. An engineer is designing the runway for an airport. Of the planes that will
use the airport, the lowest acceleration rate is likely to be 3 m/s2. The takeoff
speed for this plane will be 65 m/s. Assuming this minimum acceleration,
what is the minimum allowed length for the runway? (15 points)
Natural motion can be observed
in nature, such as falling of
leaves while violent motion is
one that is unnatural and
instigated by other factors.

Aristotle
 Sir Isaac Newton

The Three Laws of

Motion
Sir Isaac Newton in 1687
published his book
entitled Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematica (The
Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy) which contains his
treatise on motion and the three
laws of motion.
Inertia
Inertia is the existing state of matter,
whether at rest or in uniform motion in a
straight line unless a net external force is
applied to change its state. It is the
tendency of an object to resist changes in
its state of motion.
1st Law: The Law of Inertia
An object at rest or in motion
will stay at rest or in motion with
constant velocity unless acted
upon by a net external force.
According to this law, an object
at rest will remain at rest unless
you push or pull them with
enough net force.
 Balanced forces
downward force 
upward or normal force
Net force, the sum of all the forces acting on
the object is equal to zero thus, it is at rest or
there is no change in its speed. 

Based on the first law, in the absence of a net

force, an object will move at a constant speed. 
Inertia and Mass
An object’s inertia depends on its
mass. Mass is the amount of matter
in an object. It is a quantity that
only depends on the inertia of an
object. This implies that heavier
objects are harder to move or when
it is already moving, it is hard to
stop.
2nd Law: The Law of Acceleration
The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force exerted on
the object and inversely proportional to the mass of the object.
This can be mathematically expressed as
a=F/m
where

a is the acceleration of an object

F is the force applied on an object
m is the mass of an object
First Part: The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to
the force applied on an object.
Second Part: The acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the
object.
3rd Law: The Law of Action and Reaction
When an object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and
opposite force to the first object.
In the interaction of objects, force always comes in pairs. 
ACTION FORCE – ex. When you are walking, your feet is pushing the ground
downward.
REACTION – ex. Is provided on the second object on which the feet is in contact with
 Explore
• The game of bowling, a heavy ball is rolled down an alley to hit the
duckpins. When the bowling ball and the duckpins interact, can you
identify the action and reaction forces here? What are the effects of the
action and reaction forces on the bowling ball and the duckpins?
Action: bowling ball
Reaction: bowling ball pushes the duckpins
 Example:
• A car accelerates from rest to a speed of 36 km/h in 20
seconds. What is the acceleration of the car in m/s2?
Solution:

The initial velocity is 0 (from rest) and the final velocity is 36 km/h. Hence

average acceleration = 36 km/h – 0

20 seconds = 36 km/h / 20 s
We now convert 36 km/h into m/s as follows

36 km/h = 36 * 1000 m / 3600 s = 10 m/s

Hence
average acceleration = 10 m/s / 20 seconds = 0.5 m/s2
1. A plane has a take off speed of 300 km/h. What is the
acceleration in m/s2 of the plane if the plane started from
rest and took 45 seconds to take off?
2. What acceleration is needed to accelerate a car from 36
km/h to 72 km/h in 25 seconds?
3. A car slows down from a speed of 102 km/h to rest in 60
seconds. What is the acceleration of the car in m/s2?
Thank You