ENGD1106D 

Mechanical Principles-
Dynamics 
Lecture 3
Application of Newton’s laws of
motion

Dr. Hassan Ali

 Newton's first law of motion

• Newton's first law was actually discovered by Galileo and perfected by

Descartes (who added the crucial proviso ‘in a straight line’). This law
states that if the motion of a given body is not disturbed by external
influences then that body moves with constant velocity. In other words,
the displacement s of the body as a function of time t can be written

s  s0  v  t
where initial distance and velocity are constants.

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 Newton's second law of motion
Newton used the word ‘motion’ to mean what we nowadays call momentum.
The momentum p of a body is simply defined as the product of its mass m
and its velocity v: i.e.,

p  mv
Newton's second law of motion is summed up in the
equation dp
f
dt
where the vector f represents the net influence,
or force, exerted on the object, whose motion is
under investigation, by other objects.

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 Newton's second law of motion

For the case of a object with constant mass, the above law reduces to
its more conventional form:
f  ma

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 Newton's third law of motion
Suppose that body b exerts a force fab on body a. According to
Newton's third law of motion, body a must exert an equal and opposite
force fba = -fab on body b. Thus, if we label fab the ‘action’, then, in
Newton's language, fba is the equal and opposed ‘reaction’.

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 Lecture 3
Application of Newton’s laws of
motion

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 Applying 2nd Newton’s Law
(several case study examples)

• The free body diagram method:

 isolate body and identify acting external forces;

 write dynamic equations for all degrees of freedom.

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 Force on Two Masses
Since F is the only net force acting on a system of
two masses, it determines the acceleration of both:
F
a
m1  m2
The force F2 acting on the smaller mass may now be
determined.
F2  m2 a
Note that by Newton's third law, the force F2 acts
backward on m1. Note that the net force acting on m1
is consistent with the above.

F1 (net )  F  F2  (m1  m2 )a  m2 a  m1a

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 Proof of the third Newton’s Law
Since F is the only net force acting on a system of
two masses, it determines the acceleration of both:
F
a
m1  m2
The reaction force F2 acting on the smaller mass may
now be determined.
F1 F2 F2  m2 a
Reaction force acting on the bigger mass can be
calculated by applying the second Newton’s law to
the bigger mass:

F  F1  m1a  F1  F  m1a  (m1  m2 )a  m1a  m2 a

Therefore we can conclude that reaction force F 1 is equal and opposite to F2!

F1   F2

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 Coulomb’s law for friction force
An eminent French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb 1736-1806

The friction phenomena described as the following model

became known as Coulomb friction (see figures)
                                                                        
  F n

Ff V
 

The friction force can be described as:

Ff    c Fn sign(V)

with  c the Coulomb friction coefficient.

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 Dependence on applied force

• Before start of sliding the friction force is

equal to the applied force compensating the
external action
Fn
Ff    c Fn sign(V) Ff
Fapplied
V
Ff

Fapplied

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 History of Friction Laws

• Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) had made important contributions

in the field of friction physics. He studied theoretically the
mechanism of sliding motion of a block on an inclined plane.
1. The critical angle tan    s , the acceleration of the block should be
exceedingly small.
2. The difference between static and kinetic friction, the static friction is
always larger than kinetic friction.
F (V )
kinetic friction Fk   k N
static friction Fs   s N

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 Quiz 1

Friction coefficient (µ) between an object and a

surface is depended to

a) Contact surface area Ff V

b) Object’s weight
c) Contact surface properties
d) Material properties
Ff    c Fn sign(V)

e) All above

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The Block on a Smooth Inclined Plane under
Action of External Force

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The Block on a Rough Inclined Plane under
Action of External Force
NB! It is assumed that block is sliding along incline plane

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 Quiz 2

Objects A = 5 kg and B = 0.05 kg have the same

surface properties (µA= µB). They start sliding on an
inclined surface from rest. Which object gets to the
bottom of the inclined surface first?

a) Object A
N Y
b) Object B A
X
W sin  F
c) A & B the same time
W cos h
d) It depends to the contact W

surface area

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 The Atwood’s machine
The apparatus was designed by an English mathematician George Atwood (1746-1807) for
demonstration of a slowed-down free-falling motion.

A system consisting of two bodies,

connected by a weightless string
slung over a weightless pulley ( W1  m1 g ,W2  m2 g )
What is the velocity of the system T T
after a given displacement?
T
m2 g  T  m2 x
T
W1
x
T  m1 g  m1 x W2

x
The pair of equations has two unknowns, T and . Eliminating T by
adding the two and solving for x
leads to
m2  m1 m2  m1 2(m2  m1 ) gx
x  g V 2  2 xx  2 gx  V 
m2  m1 m1  m1 m1  m1

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2nd Newton’s Law and Conservation of Energy
(several case study examples)

• The work-energy principle:

 conservation of total energy (potential + kinetic),

when there are no dissipative forces;

 work produced in a system changes the total energy

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 The Block on a Smooth Inclined Plane
Y
The forces are not in equilibrium, and N
hence the block will not remain at rest. A
X
The Newton’s law equations: Wsin

In the x direction: W sin   mx Wcos h

B  W
In the y direction: N  W cos   my  0

x  a  g sin  ; N  mg cos 

Conservation of energy method:

mVB2
mgh   V B  2 gh
2
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 The Block on a Rough Inclined Plane
N Y
The friction force has been given the
magnitude F   k N and direction A
X
corresponding to a downward sliding W sin  F
motion. h
W cos

The Newton’s law equations:  W

In the X direction: W sin    k N  mx

In the Y direction: N  W cos   my  0 h
VB2  2 ABa  2 g (sin    k cos  );
sin 
x  a  g (sin    k cos ); N  mg cos
2hg (sin    k cos  )
VB 
a  0  sin  *   k cos *  0  tan  *   k sin 
Conservation of energy method:

mVB2 h (sin    k cos  )

mgh    k mg cos   VB  2 gh
2 sin  sin 
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