NEWTON’S LAW OF MOTION

Dynamics is the study of the forces that cause objects and systems to move. To understand
this, we need a working definition of force. Our intuitive definition of force—that is, a push or a
pull—is a good place to start. We know that a push or pull has both magnitude and direction
(therefore, it is a vector quantity) and can vary considerably in each regard.

Newton’s first law of motion: Inertia

Experience suggests that an object at rest will remain at rest if left alone, and that an object in
motion tends to slow down and stop unless some effort is made to keep it moving.
What Newton’s first law of motion states, however, is the following:

Rather than contradicting our experience, Newton’s first law of motion states that there
must be a cause (which is a net external force) for there to be any change in velocity (either a
change in magnitude or direction). We will define net external force in the next section. An
object sliding across a table or floor slows down due to the net force of friction acting on the
object. If friction disappeared, would the object still slow down?

The idea of cause and effect is crucial in accurately describing what happens in various
situations. For example, consider what happens to an object sliding along a rough horizontal
surface. The object quickly grinds to a halt. If we spray the surface with talcum powder to
make the surface smoother, the object slides farther. If we make the surface even smoother by
rubbing lubricating oil on it, the object slides farther yet. Extrapolating to a frictionless surface,
we can imagine the object sliding in a straight line indefinitely. Friction is thus the cause of the
slowing (consistent with Newton’s first law). The object would not slow down at all if friction
were completely eliminated. Consider an air hockey table. When the air is turned off, the puck
slides only a short distance before friction slows it to a stop. However, when the air is turned
on, it creates a nearly frictionless surface, and the puck glides long distances without slowing
down. Additionally, if we know enough about the friction, we can accurately predict how quickly
the object will slow down. Friction is an external force.

Newton’s first law is completely general and can be applied to anything from an object sliding
on a table to a satellite in orbit to blood pumped from the heart. Experiments have thoroughly
verified that any change in velocity (speed or direction) must be caused by an external force.
The idea of generally applicable or universal laws is important not only here—it is a basic
feature of all laws of physics. Identifying these laws is like recognizing patterns in nature from
which further patterns can be discovered. The genius of Galileo, who first developed the idea
for the first law, and Newton, who clarified it, was to ask the fundamental question, “What is
the cause?” Thinking in terms of cause and effect is a worldview fundamentally different from
the typical ancient Greek approach when questions such as “Why does a tiger have stripes?”
would have been answered in Aristotelian fashion, “That is the nature of the beast.” True
perhaps, but not a useful insight.
TEACHER’S INSIGHT

Newton’s first law says that an object acted on by zero net force moves in a straight line with
constant speed, or , if it is at rest, remains at rest.

Certainly, it makes sense that an object at rest remains at rest unless force acts upon it to make it
move. On the other hand, it may not be obvious that an object can continue to move with constant
speed in a straight line without forces acting to keep it moving. In our experience most moving
objects come to rest because of forces that oppose motion, like friction. Example, a hockey puck can
slide the entire length of a rink with very little change in speed or direction because the ice is
slippery (friction forces are small). If we remove all the resistive force, including friction and air
resistance, the puck would slide without changing its speed and direction.

Newton’s second law of motion  is closely related to Newton’s first law of motion. It
mathematically states the cause and effect relationship between force and changes in motion.
Newton’s second law of motion is more quantitative and is used extensively to calculate what
happens in situations involving a force. Before we can write down Newton’s second law as a
simple equation giving the exact relationship of force, mass, and acceleration, we need to
sharpen some ideas that have already been mentioned.

First, what do we mean by a change in motion? The answer is that a change in motion is
equivalent to a change in velocity. A change in velocity means, by definition, that there is
an acceleration. Newton’s first law says that a net external force causes a change in motion;
thus, we see that a net external force causes acceleration.
Another question immediately arises. What do we mean by an external force? An intuitive
notion of external is correct—an external force acts from outside the system of interest. For
example, in Figure 4.5(a) the system of interest is the wagon plus the child in it. The two forces
exerted by the other children are external forces. An internal force acts between elements of
the system. Again looking at Figure 4.5(a), the force the child in the wagon exerts to hang onto
the wagon is an internal force between elements of the system of interest. Only external forces
affect the motion of a system, according to Newton’s first law. (The internal forces actually
cancel, as we shall see in the next section.) You must define the boundaries of the system
before you can determine which forces are external. Sometimes the system is obvious, whereas
other times identifying the boundaries of a system is more subtle. The concept of a system is
fundamental to many areas of physics, as is the correct application of Newton’s laws. This
concept will be revisited many times on our journey through physics.

TEACHER’S INSIGHT

To obtain an equation for Newton’s second law, we first write the relationship of acceleration and
net external force as the proportionality
Figure 4.6 The same force exerted on systems of different masses produces different
accelerations. (a) A basketball player pushes on a basketball to make a pass. (The effect of
gravity on the ball is ignored.) (b) The same player exerts an identical force on a stalled SUV
and produces a far smaller acceleration (even if friction is negligible). (c) The free-body
diagrams are identical, permitting direct comparison of the two situations. A series of patterns
for the free-body diagram will emerge as you do more problems.

It has been found that the acceleration of an object depends only on the net external force and
the mass of the object. Combining the two proportionalities just given yields Newton's second
law of motion.

F = ma

Units of Force

F=ma is used to define the units of force in terms of the three basic units for mass, length, and
time. The SI unit of force is called the newton (abbreviated N) and is the force needed to
accelerate a 1-kg system at the rate of 1m/s2. That is, since F=ma
1 N=1 kg⋅m/s2

4.6

While almost the entire world uses the newton for the unit of force, in the United States the
most familiar unit of force is the pound (lb), where 1 N = 0.225 lb.

Weight and the Gravitational Force

When an object is dropped, it accelerates toward the center of Earth. Newton’s second law
states that a net force on an object is responsible for its acceleration. If air resistance is
negligible, the net force on a falling object is the gravitational force, commonly called
its weight (w). Weight can be denoted as a vector w because it has a direction; down is, by
definition, the direction of gravity, and hence weight is a downward force. The magnitude of
weight is denoted as w.  Galileo was instrumental in showing that, in the absence of air
resistance, all objects fall with the same acceleration g. Using Galileo’s result and Newton’s
second law, we can derive an equation for weight.
Consider an object with mass (m) falling downward toward Earth. It experiences only the
downward force of gravity, which has magnitude w. Newton’s second law states that the
magnitude of the net external force on an object is F=ma.
Since the object experiences only the downward force of gravity, F=w. We know that the
acceleration of an object due to gravity is g, or a=g. Substituting these into Newton’s second
law gives
W= m*g

Ex. What is the weight of 350 g of fresh figs in Newton?

W= 350g * 9.8m/s2

Strategy: Convert the weight of figs into kg.

1 kg
350 g= =0.35 kg
1000 g

Multiply the converted mass into earth’s gravity (c=9.8m/s2)

W= 0.35kg*9.8m/s2 = 3.43 kg.m/s2/ N

Mass and weight are often used interchangeably in everyday language. However, in science,
these terms are distinctly different from one another. Mass is a measure of how much matter is
in an object. The typical measure of mass is the kilogram (or the “slug” in English units).
Weight, on the other hand, is a measure of the force of gravity acting on an object. Weight is
equal to the mass of an object (m) multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity (g) Like any
other force, weight is measured in terms of newtons (or pounds in English units).
Assuming the mass of an object is kept intact, it will remain the same, regardless of its location.
However, because weight depends on the acceleration due to gravity, the weight of an
object can change when the object enters into a region with stronger or weaker gravity. For
example, the acceleration due to gravity on the Moon is 1.67m/s2 (which is much less than the
acceleration due to gravity on Earth, 9.80m/s2). If you measured your weight on Earth and then
measured your weight on the Moon, you would find that you “weigh” much less, even though
you do not look any skinnier. This is because the force of gravity is weaker on the Moon. In
fact, when people say that they are “losing weight,” they really mean that they are losing
“mass” (which in turn causes them to weigh less).

NEWTON’S THIRD LAW OF MOTION

There is a passage in the musical Man of la Mancha that relates to Newton’s third law of

motion. Sancho, in describing a fight with his wife to Don Quixote, says, “Of course I hit her
back, Your Grace, but she’s a lot harder than me and you know what they say, ‘Whether the
stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the stone, it’s going to be bad for the pitcher.’” This is
exactly what happens whenever one body exerts a force on another—the first also experiences
a force (equal in magnitude and opposite in direction). Numerous common experiences, such as
stubbing a toe or throwing a ball, confirm this. It is precisely stated in Newton’s third law of
motion.

NEWTON’S THIRD LAW OF MOTION

Whenever one body exerts a force on a second body, the first body experiences a force that is
equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force that it exerts.

This law represents a certain symmetry in nature: Forces always occur in pairs, and one body
cannot exert a force on another without experiencing a force itself. We sometimes refer to this
law loosely as “action-reaction,” where the force exerted is the action and the force experienced
as a consequence is the reaction. Newton’s third law has practical uses in analyzing the origin
of forces and understanding which forces are external to a system.

We can readily see Newton’s third law at work by taking a look at how people move about.
Consider a swimmer pushing off from the side of a pool, as illustrated in Figure 4.9. She pushes
against the pool wall with her feet and accelerates in the direction opposite to that of her push.
The wall has exerted an equal and opposite force back on the swimmer. You might think that
two equal and opposite forces would cancel, but they do not because they act on different
systems. In this case, there are two systems that we could investigate: the swimmer or the
wall. If we select the swimmer to be the system of interest, as in the figure, then F wall on
feet is an external force on this system and affects its motion. The swimmer moves in the
direction of Fwall on feet. In contrast, the force Ffeet on wall acts on the wall and not on our
system of interest. Thus Ffeet on wall does not directly affect the motion of the system and
does not cancel Fwall on feetsize. Note that the swimmer pushes in the direction opposite to
that in which she wishes to move. The reaction to her push is thus in the desired direction.

Figure 4.9 When the swimmer exerts a force Ffeet on wall on the wall, she accelerates in the
direction opposite to that of her push. This means the net external force on her is in the
direction opposite to Ffeet on wall. This opposition occurs because, in accordance with
Newton’s third law of motion, the wall exerts a force Fwall on feet on her, equal in magnitude
but in the direction opposite to the one she exerts on it. The line around the swimmer indicates
the system of interest. Note that Ffeet on wall does not act on this system (the swimmer) and,
thus, does not cancel Fwall on feet. Thus the free-body diagram shows only Fwall on feet , w,
the gravitational force, and BF, the buoyant force of the water supporting the swimmer’s
weight. The vertical forces w and BF cancel since there is no vertical motion.
Other examples of Newton’s third law are easy to find. As a professor paces in front of a
whiteboard, she exerts a force backward on the floor. The floor exerts a reaction force forward
on the professor that causes her to accelerate forward. Similarly, a car accelerates because the
ground pushes forward on the drive wheels in reaction to the drive wheels pushing backward
on the ground. You can see evidence of the wheels pushing backward when tires spin on a
gravel road and throw rocks backward. In another example, rockets move forward by expelling
gas backward at high velocity. This means the rocket exerts a large backward force on the gas
in the rocket combustion chamber, and the gas therefore exerts a large reaction force forward
on the rocket. This reaction force is called thrust. It is a common misconception that rockets
propel themselves by pushing on the ground or on the air behind them. They actually work
better in a vacuum, where they can more readily expel the exhaust gases. Helicopters similarly
create lift by pushing air down, thereby experiencing an upward reaction force. Birds and
airplanes also fly by exerting force on air in a direction opposite to that of whatever force they
need. For example, the wings of a bird force air downward and backward in order to get lift and
move forward. An octopus propels itself in the water by ejecting water through a funnel from its
body, similar to a jet ski. In a situation similar to Sancho’s, professional cage fighters
experience reaction forces when they punch, sometimes breaking their hand by hitting an
opponent’s body.

Relate to Practice:

What are the example you see in your daily living where Newton’s law is applied? Give an
example and explain.

Before you proceed, please watch the Video entitled “Acceleration” “Newton’s Law of Motion”
by entering the link below in your browser.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0UYC8S4kUI
2. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-physics-1/ap-one-dimensional-motion/average-and-
instantaneous-acceleration/v/acceleration
3. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-physics-1/ap-forces-newtons-laws/newtons-first-
law-mass-and-inertia-ap/v/newton-s-1st-law-of-motion
4. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-physics-1/ap-forces-newtons-laws/newtons-second-
law-ap/v/newton-s-second-law-of-motion
5. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-physics-1/ap-forces-newtons-laws/newtons-third-
law-ap/v/newton-s-third-law-of-motion