NEWTON’S

LAWS OF
MOTION
Objectives:

■ Differentiate contact from noncontact forces.

■ Draw free-body diagrams.
■ Define inertial frame of reference.
■ Apply Newton’s first law of motion to obtain quantitative
and qualitative conclusions about contact and
noncontact forces acting on a body in equilibrium.
■ Plan and execute an experiment involving forces.
■ Distinguish mass from weight.
Objectives:

■ Differentiate static from kinetic friction.

■ Compare the magnitude of sought quantities such as force and
acceleration.
■ Apply Newton’s second law of motion and kinematics to obtain
quantitative and qualitative conclusions about the velocity and
acceleration of one or more bodies.
■ Analyze the effect of fluid resistance on a moving object.
■ Solve problems using Newton’s laws of motion.
■ Identify action-reaction pairs.
■ What determines who wins in a tug of war?
■ Why do passengers on a bus tend to move forward when
the bus suddenly stops?
■ What keeps the sun, Earth, and move continuously in
their paths?
DYNAMICS
Dynamics is
the study of
the causes of
motion.
FORCES
■ In layman’s term, a force is a simple push or
pull.
■ When two bodies interact, there is force.
FORCES
CLASSIFICATION OF FORCES
■ Contact Force
■ Noncontact Force
CONTACT FORCE
Contact force occurs when the
bodies interacting are touching
each other.
NONCONTACT ■ Noncontact
forces are

FORCE
long-range
forces that
can act even
if the bodies
are separated
by empty
space.
 COMMON
TYPES OF ■ NORMAL FORCE (n)
FORCES THAT ■ FRICTION (f)
ACT ON A
■ TENSION (T)
MECHANICAL
■ WEIGHT (w)
SYSTEM
 NORMAL FORCE

- IS EXERTED ON AN
OBJECT BY A SURFACE
WHICH IS IN CONTACT
WITH.
- THE WORD “NORMAL”
MEANS THAT ITS
DIRECTION IS ALWAYS
PERPENDICULAR TO THE
SURFACE.
 FRICTION

- ACTS PARALLEL
TO THE SURFACE
OPPOSITE TO THE
DIRECTION OF
MOTION OF THE
BODY.
 TENSION

- IS THE PULLING FORCE

EXERTED BY A
STRETCHED ROPE ON AN
OBJECT TO WHICH IT IS
ATTACHED.
 WEIGHT

- IS THE DOWNWARD
GRAVITATIONAL FORCE
EXERTED BY EARTH ON
AN OBJECT.
■ In analyzing mechanical system, you are
interested in finding the net force on a body
most of the time.
■ The NET FORCE is the vector sum of all the
forces that act on a body.
■ You can find the net force by first constructing
an idealized model of the system.
■ To do this, you draw a FREE-BODY DIAGRAM
that shows all the forces that act on a body.
■ To construct a free-body diagram, include only
the forces that act on the body, not the forces
exerted by the body on other bodies.
■ After making a free-body diagram, define the
coordinate system that shows the location of
the origin and the positive directions for the
axes.
■ The, designate the body as a particle located
at the origin, and draw vectors that represent
the forces that act on the body.
■ The net force may be computed using vector
addition.
Example 1
Draw the free-body diagram for each item. Then
find the net force on each body.
a. A cat with weight of 50 N falls toward the
ground.
b. An apple with a 1 N weight rests on a
table that exerts a normal force of 1 N.
c. A 100 N box is pulled by a rope with a
strength of 200 N at an angle of 30 degrees
across a surface with a 5 N frictional force. The
surface exerts an 80 N normal force.
Example 2
A horizontal force of 150 N is applied on a 20 kg
which causes it to move to the right.
a. What is the acceleration if there is no
friction?
b. What is the acceleration if the coefficient
of kinetic friction is 0.25?
c. Using the acceleration in letter b, what is
the final speed of the box after 8 seconds?
Example 3
A rope lifts up a 5 kg with a tension force of 80
N. What is the acceleration of the box?
Example 4
A 10 kg box rests on a 30 degrees incline and
begins to slide down.
a. What is the acceleration if no friction is
present?
b. What is the acceleration if the coefficient
of kinetic friction in 0.20?
c. What is the final speed of the box when
kit reaches the bottom of an incline that in 200
m? (use the answer in letter b?
Example 5
A force of 200 N is applied on a 10 kg box
across a frictionless surface.
a. What is the acceleration of the box?
b. If the box accelerates from rest, what will
its final speed be after 8 seconds?
c. How long will it take the box to reach a
speed of 500 m/s if it continues to accelerate at
this rate?
Example 6
A force of 300 N is applied across a 20 kg box. The
frictional force acting on the box is 200 N.
a. What is the net horizontal force of the box?
b. Calculate the acceleration of the box.
c. How far will the box travel after 12 seconds
if it continues to accelerate at this rate starting
from rest?
■ Imagine a rolling ball that eventually comes to
stop?
■ How do you think Aristotle explain this
phenomenon?
■ What about Galileo and Newton?
■ Who among them is the most convincing?
HISTORY OF THE LAWS OF MOTION

■ Aristotle would say that the ball comes to stop

because it seeks its natural state of motion –
at rest.
■ Using his ideas of motion, he said that force is
required to keep an object moving.
■ Therefore, you must keep pushing the ball so
that it will continue moving.
HISTORY OF THE LAWS OF MOTION

■ But according to Galileo and Newton, the ball

stopped because of the presence of friction on
the surface of the table.
■ Without this friction, the ball will continuously
move and no force needed to keep it moving.
■ Based on experiments, this explanation is
correct and thus, Aristotle’s views on motion
were then discredited.
 HISTORY OF THE LAWS OF MOTION
■ Galileo came to realize his views on motion by conducting
an experiment using inclined planes.
■ Rolling balls eventually come to a stop NOT because of their
“natural motion” as Aristotle believed, but because of
FRICTION.
■ Also, he observed that when the balls roll on a smoother
surface with less friction, the motion of the ball persisted
for a longer time.
■ Therefore, in the absence of friction or opposing forces, a
ball rolling horizontally would continue moving indefinitely.
 HISTORY OF THE LAWS OF MOTION
■ In the absence of retarding forces such as friction,
Galileo realized that moving objects move continuously
in a straight line with constant velocity.
■ Likewise, an object at rest will remain at rest unless it
is moved by a net force.
■ This tendency of a body to maintain its state of being
at rest or moving uniformly in a straight line is called
INERTIA.
■ An object’s inertia is proportional to its mass.
 HISTORY OF THE LAWS OF MOTION

■ In the same year Galileo died, Isaac Newton was born.

■ Upon the foundations laid by Galileo, Isaac built his
great theories on motion at the age of 23.
■ In 1687, he published them in the historical Principia
Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis (Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy).
■ His analysis of motion is summarized in the famous
“Three Laws of Motion”
 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION

■ Also known as “Law of Inertia”

■ It states that:

“Every object will retain its state of motion (whether at

rest or moving with constant velocity in a straight line)
unless acted upon by a net force.”
 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION

■ Which is more difficult to move from rest --- a truck or a

bicycle?
■ Certainly, it’s the truck because it has a greater mass
than the bicycle.
■ Note that “the greater the mass of an object, the
greater its tendency to maintain its state of motion.
■ Mass is a measure of the inertia of an object.
 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION

■ Why do passengers in a vehicle move backward when

the vehicle suddenly moves forward (from stationary)?
Why do passengers move forward when it suddenly
brakes and stops?
 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION
■ When a stationary bus suddenly starts to move, it
accelerates forward.
■ By the Law of Inertia, the passengers tend to retain their
state of being at rest.
■ But because they are seated on the bus, the friction on
their seats pull them forward, making them look like they
are moving backward.
■ Likewise, when a moving bus (and the passengers)
suddenly stops, its acceleration is directed backward.
■ The passengers tend to retain their state of being in motion
so they tend to move forward.
 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION
■ A body is in a STATE OF EQUILIBRIUM when it is at rest or
moving with a constant velocity.
■ Be Newton’s law of inertia, the net force that acts on it must
be zero.
■ That is, for a body to be in a state of equilibrium, the vector
sum of all the forces that act on it must be ZERO.
■ Thus, for a body to be in a state of equilibrium, the
summation of forces in each component must also be zero.
■ This is sometimes called the FIRST CONDITION FOR
EQUILIBRIUM.
 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION

Example 1:
An apple with weight of 1 N rests on a table. Find the
normal force that the table exerts on the apple.
 NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION

Example 2:
A man pulls a 100 N box using a rope oriented at an
angle of 30 degrees with a horizontal force on the rough
floor that exerts 8 N frictional force on the box. Find:
a. the tension in the rope.
b. the normal force that the floor exerts on the box.
 NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION

■ When the net force that acts on a body is zero, the

body is in the state of equilibrium. This means that the
body will continue its state of motion (whether at rest
or moving).
■ What about when the net force is NOT ZERO?
■ The net force will cause the body to accelerate. The
body either moves from rest or the velocity changes. A
net force causes acceleration.
 NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION
■ If you push cart, it will accelerate in the direction of the
net force.
■ If you increase the net force on the cart, its
acceleration also increases.
■ This suggests that for a constant mass, the
acceleration of an object is proportional to the net
force that acts on it.
■ The symbol ∝ means “proportional to”.
acceleration ∝ net force
 NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION
■ The acceleration of an object depends on its mass as
well.
■ If you push an empty cart with the same force as you
push the one filled with groceries, you will find that the
empty cart accelerates more.
■ Therefore, the greater the mass of the body, the lesser
its acceleration for a given net force.
■ So, for a constant net force, the acceleration of an
object is inversely proportional to its mass.
NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION
 NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION
■ These relationships are summarized in the Newton’s
Second Law of Motion or the Law of Acceleration,
which states that:

“The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to

the net force acting on it, is in the same direction as the
net force, and is inversely proportional to its mass.”
 NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION
■ This can be expressed in an equation as:

Fnet = ma
Or
 NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION
■ You can now apply Newton’s second law to an object of
mass that is falling due to gravity.
■ The force of gravity for this object is:
Fg = mg
 MASS VS. WEIGHT
Example 1
The acceleration due to gravity on Earth is 9.8 m/s^2.
On the moon, the acceleration due to gravity is only one-
sixth of Earth’s. Compare the mass and weight of a 60-
kg person on Earth and on the moon.
 MASS VS. WEIGHT
MASS – is the property of an object itself. It is the
measure of an object’s inertia or its “quantity of matter.”

WEIGHT – is a force or the pull of the gravity on an

object.
 MASS VS. WEIGHT
Example 2
For an Atwood machine with a frictionless pulley and
masses m1 = 0.10 kg and m2 = 0.30 kg. Find the:
a. acceleration of the system.
b. tension along the string.
Assume that the string has negligible mass and cannot
be stretched.
 MASS VS. WEIGHT
Example 3
Two blocks are connected by an ideal cord that does not
stretch; the cord passes over an ideal pulley. If the
masses are m1 = 42.0 kg and m2 = 26.0 kg, what are
the acceleration of the system and the tension in the
cord?
 MASS VS. WEIGHT
Example 4
A student is moving into a dorm room on the third floor
and he decides to use a block and tackle arrangement to
move a crate of mass 91 kg from the ground up to his
window. If the breaking strength of the available rope is
550 N, what is the minimum time required to haul the
crate to the level of the window 30 m above the ground,
without breaking the rope?
 APPARENT WEIGHT AND WEIGHTLESSNESS
Example 3
Suppose you are standing on a weighing scale in an
elevator. What is the reading on the scale when you are
(a) accelerating upward and (b) accelerating downward
at a rate of 2.0 m/s^2? Your mass is 50 kg.
 APPARENT WEIGHT AND WEIGHTLESSNESS
Example 3
Apparent weight – the reading on the weighing scale,
which is also the normal force (n).

True weight – your actual weight (w).

 APPARENT WEIGHT AND WEIGHTLESSNESS
■ Interestingly, you seem to weigh more if the elevator is
accelerating upward and less if it is accelerating
downward.
■ The elevator accelerates upward when it is either:
(1) Moving upward with increasing speed.
(2) Moving downward with decreasing speed.
 APPARENT WEIGHT AND WEIGHTLESSNESS
■ Likewise, the elevator accelerates downward when it is
either:
(1) Moving upward with decreasing speed.
(2) Moving downward with increasing speed.
 APPARENT WEIGHT AND WEIGHTLESSNESS
■ When the elevator is stationary or moving at a
constant speed, then the acceleration is zero, so
apparent weight is equal to true weight.
 APPARENT WEIGHT AND WEIGHTLESSNESS
■ Now, imagine that the elevator cable breaks and it
plunges to the ground. What is your apparent weight in
this scenario?
■ For this case, you are in a state of free fall, so your
acceleration is a = -g.
■ Substituting this to apparent weight gives n = 0.
■ You are therefore apparently WEIGHTLESS.
 APPARENT WEIGHT AND WEIGHTLESSNESS
Example 4:
A passenger weighing 598 N rides in a elevator. What is the
apparent weight of the passenger in each of the following
situations? In each case, the magnitude of the elevator’s
acceleration in 0.500 m/s^2.
a. The passenger is on the first floor and has pushed
the button for the fifteenth floor, the elevator is beginning to
move upward.
b. The elevator is slowing down as it nears the fifteenth
floor.
 APPARENT WEIGHT AND WEIGHTLESSNESS
Example 5:
What is the apparent weight of a passenger of mass 42.0
kg traveling in an elevator in each of the following
situations? In each case, the magnitude of the elevator’s
acceleration is 0.460 m/s^2.
a. The passenger is on the fifteenth floor and has
pushed the button for the first floor, the elevator is
beginning to move downward.
b. The elevator is slowing down as it nears the first
floor.
 NEWTON’S THIRD LAW OF MOTION
■ Forces always come in pairs.
■ When you push a wall, you can feel that the wall also
pushes you back.
■ When a rocket expels out gases backward, the gases
push the rocket forward, which eventually propels the
rocket forward.
 NEWTON’S THIRD LAW OF MOTION
■ This is the concept of Newton’s Third Law of Motion or
the Law of Interaction, which states that:

“For every force, there is an interacting force with equal

magnitude and opposite direction.”
 NEWTON’S THIRD LAW OF MOTION
■ The forces mentioned in the law are commonly
referred as “action-reaction” forces.
■ Action-reaction forces act on different bodies.
■ You should be cautious because these forces act on
different objects even though their magnitudes are the
same.
NEWTON’S THIRD LAW OF MOTION