Chapter 3

Newton’s Laws
 THE MASS
Every object possesses inertia.
Inertia is the tendency of a body at rest to
remain at rest, and of a body in motion to
continue moving with unchanged velocity.
or
Inertia is the sluggishness of an object to
changes in its state of motion.
Mass - a measure of the inertia of an object
Demo - Inertia rocks
Demo – Hoop and chalk
 THE STANDARD KILOGRAM

The standard kilogram is an object whose mass is

defined to be one kilogram.
Abbreviation is kg.
There is an English unit of mass. The slug.
A slug weighs 32.2 lb.
 FORCE

In general force is the agency of change.

In mechanics forces cause accelerations.
It is a vector.
An external force is one whose source lies
outside of the system being considered.
 THE NET EXTERNAL FORCE

The net external force acting on an object causes

the object to accelerate in the direction of that
force.
 F a
The combination of m
forces that act on an
object is the net force.
(Only the net force is F m
a
shown in the figures on
this slide.)
F m
a
This symbol means
The acceleration of an
 
proportional to

object is directly
proportional to the net
a F
force.
Consider the same net
F
m
a
force applied to
m
different mass
F a
objects. m

m
The acceleration is F a
m
inversely proportional
to the mass of the 1
object. a 
m
The acceleration is proportional to the force and
inversely proportional to the mass of the object.
 THE NEWTON

The Newton (N) is the SI unit of force.

A resultant 1 N force will give a 1 kg mass an
acceleration of 1 m/s2.
The pound (lb) is the English unit of force.
A resultant 1 lb force will give a 1 sl mass an
acceleration of 1 ft/s2.
 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW

An object at rest will remain at rest;

an object in motion will continue in motion with
constant velocity, except insofar as it is acted
upon by an external force.
“If you leave an object alone, it has constant
velocity.”
 NEWTON’S SECOND LAW

Newton stated it in terms of momentum.

A less rigorous form of the second law will be
used here.
If the net external force acting on an object is
not zero, then the acceleration of the object is
directly proportional to the net external force
and inversely proportional to the mass of the
object.
 
 F
a
m
 
or F  ma

The force in each of these equations

represents the vector sum of all of the
forces acting on the object of mass m.
This vector equation can be written out as
three separate scalar equations.
 
F  ma

Fx  max Fy  ma y Fz  maz

 NEWTON’S THIRD LAW
Forces represent interactions between one
piece of matter and another.
Therefore, forces come in pairs.
For each force exerted on one body, there
is an equal, but oppositely directed, force
on some other body interacting with it.
“You cannot touch without being touched.”
Paul Hewitt
This is often called the Law of Action and
Reaction.
THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL
GRAVITATION

m1 m2
r

m1m2
F 2
r
 m1m2
F G 2
r

11 2 2
G  6.67 x10 N  m / kg
Gravity is the most dominant force in

nature.

Yet it is the weakest.

 4 units
3 units
2 units
1 unit

Let’s look at the inverse-square

nature for the force of gravity.
 THE WEIGHT

The weight of an object is the gravitational

force acting downward on the object.
Because the Earth is not a perfect uniform
sphere, and because it is spinning, the
weight measured by a scale (often called
the effective weight) will be very slightly
different from that defined here.
 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
MASS AND WEIGHT
Look at the force of gravity on a freely
falling object.
We call that the weight of the object.
 
F  ma
W  mg
A 1 kg object would weigh 9.81 N
or 2.20 lb.
 THE TENSILE FORCE

It is an applied force that tends to stretch

things.
It’s magnitude is called the tension.
 THE FRICTION FORCE

It is a tangential force acting on an object

that opposes the sliding of that object on
an adjacent surface with which it is in
contact.
The friction force is parallel to the
surface and opposite to the direction of
motion or of impending motion.
Only when the applied force exceeds the
maximum static friction force will an
object begin to slide.
 THE NORMAL FORCE

The normal force is a part of the contact

force between surfaces in contact.
The normal force is perpendicular to the
surfaces in contact.
The frictional force is parallel to the
surfaces in contact.
 THE COEFFICIENT OF
KINETIC FRICTION
For surfaces in contact that are sliding
with respect to each other, the coefficient
of kinetic friction is the ratio of the
friction force to the normal force.
friction force F
 
normal force N
 THE COEFFICIENT OF
STATIC FRICTION
For surfaces in contact on the verge of
sliding with respect to each other the
coefficient of static friction is the ratio of
the maximum static friction force to the
normal force.

max imum static friction force Fs max

 
normal force N
 FRICTION
Friction opposes the motion between surfaces in
contact with one another.
When there is a tendency for movement between two
surfaces and yet there is no motion, the friction is
static friction.
Static friction has an upper limit.
When there is motion between the two surfaces, the
friction is kinetic (sliding) friction.
 FFFFFAAA
A
A
F
F

On the verge of slipping

Sliding

Maximum Static Friction

Friction, F

Kinetic (sliding) Friction

Applied Force, FA
 DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS:
Fundamental Dimensions
Length L
Mass m
Time t
Derived dimensions are combinations of the
fundamental dimensions.
For example: length/time2
Remember that you can only add or subtract
things that are alike.
For example velocity plus velocity
x  vi t  at
1
2
2

L L
L t 2 t 2

t t
MATHEMATICAL OPERATIONS
WITH UNITS:
When numbers are placed into equations, their
units must appear with them.
Units undergo the same mathematical
operation as the numbers do.
Conversion from one form of the unit to
another may be necessary.
For example meters to centimeters.
See examples in text, page 30.
 Free Body Diagrams (FBD)

This is a diagram showing some object and the

forces applied to it.
It contains only forces and coordinate
information, nothing else.
There are only two kinds of forces to be
considered in mechanics:
Force of gravity
Contact forces
 Example FBD
A car of mass m rests on a 300 incline.

FBD

F
y

 x


mg
 Newton’s Second Law
NSL
A car of mass m rests on a 300 incline.
y
NSL
N x
Fx  ma x
F  mg sin   max F

Fy  ma y
N  mg cos   ma y 


What if friction is smaller? mg

 Newton’s Second Law
NSL
A car of mass m rests on a 300 incline.
y
NSL
N x
Fx  ma x
F  mg sin   max F

Fy  ma y
N  mg cos   ma y 

oops
mg