Forces

Forces and Their Effects

• Newton’s First Law: An object will remain in its state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force.
• Newton’s Second Law: The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass. This is represented by the formula: F = ma.
• Newton’s Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Force Diagrams

• Free body diagrams are diagrams used to show the relative magnitude and direction of all forces acting upon an object in a given situation.
• Every force has a specific representation e.g., frictional force, gravitational force, tension.

Friction

• Friction is a force that resists the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, or material elements sliding against each other.
• Static friction keeps an object at rest. It must be overcome to start moving the object.
• Sliding friction, or kinetic friction, acts when the object is in motion.

Resultant Forces

• The resultant force is the net force resulting from the combination of two or more individual forces.
• Resolving forces involves breaking a single force into two component forces. The vector operations of addition, subtraction and scaling can be used.

Centripetal Force

• Centripetal force is the force that keeps a body in a circular path. It is directed towards the centre of the path.