MODULE 5 - FORCE

Learning Outcomes: At the end of the lesson, learners should be able to:

1. relate force and the law of inertia;

2. apply the law of acceleration;
3. identify components of friction;
4. analyze forces in one dimension;
5. distinguish among weight, mass, and gravity; and
6. analyze how the law of action and reaction is used.

Learning Time: 2 weeks (week-7-8)

DISCUSSION

Force and the Law of Inertia

 A force is any push or pull.
 Forces tend to either change the motion of an object or prevent the object from changing
its motion.
 Force is a vector quantity and therefore has both magnitude and direction. The force
tends to produce acceleration in the direction of its application.
 Therefore, if you want to accelerate the soccer ball, you need to kick it in the direction
you want the ball to move.
 To get the car to slow down, you apply the brakes, which creates a force in the opposite
direction of the car’s motion and causes a negative acceleration.
 Not all forces result in acceleration. For example, if you attempt to push a large crate,
it may not move because another force, in this case a frictional force, matches your
pushing force, preventing you from moving.
 The units for measuring force are the newton (N) in the metric system

The three laws are often called Newton’s laws. The first law, called the law of inertia, is
as follows;
- LAW OF INERTIA: NEWTON’S FIRST LAW
- A body that is in motion continues in motion with the same velocity (at constant
speed and in a straight line) and a body at rest continues at rest unless an unbalanced
(outside) force acts upon it.

37
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS
  If an automobile is stopped (at rest) on level ground, it resists being moved. That is,
a person is required to exert a tremendous push to get it moving.
 Similarly, if an automobile is moving—even slowly—it takes a large force to stop it. This
property of resisting a change in motion is called inertia.
 Inertia is the property of a body that causes it to remain at rest if it is at rest or to continue
moving with a constant velocity unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.
 When the accelerating force of an automobile engine is no longer applied to a moving
car, the car will slow down. This is not a violation of the law of inertia because there are
forces being applied to the car through air resistance, friction in the bearings, and the
rolling resistance of the tires [Fig. 5.2(a)].
 If these forces could be removed, the auto would continue moving with a constant
velocity. Anyone who has tried to stop quickly on ice knows the effect of the law of
inertia when frictional forces are small [Fig. 5.2(b)]

Try this simple activity at home. (use 1 peso coin instead of quarter)

Force and the Law of Acceleration

 The second law of motion, called the law of acceleration, relates the applied force, the
mass, and the acceleration of an object.
- LAW OF ACCELERATION: NEWTON’S SECOND LAW
- The total force acting on a body is equal to the mass of the body times its acceleration

38
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS
In equation form this law is:
F = ma
where F = total force
m = mass
a = acceleration

 The formula states that when a force is applied to an object, the force causes the object
to accelerate.
 The stronger the force, the larger is the acceleration.
 The weaker the force, the smaller is the acceleration.
 In addition, when pushed with the same force, a more massive object will accelerate less
and a less massive object will accelerate more.
If the mass is kept constant,

If the force is kept constant,

In SI units, the mass unit is the kilogram (kg) and the acceleration unit is metre/second/second
(m/s2). The force required to accelerate 1 kg of mass at a rate of 1 m/s2 is,

The SI force unit is the newton (N), named in honor of Isaac Newton, and is defined as
1 N = 1 kg m/s2
Example No. 1

39
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS
Example No. 2

Gravity and Weight

 The weight of an object is the amount of gravitational pull exerted on an object by the
earth. If this force is not balanced by other forces, an acceleration is produced.
 When you hold a brick in your hand as in Fig. 5.5, you exert an upward force on the brick
that balances the downward force (weight).
 If you remove your hand, the brick moves downward due to the unbalanced force. The
velocity of the falling brick increases, but the acceleration (rate of change of the velocity)
is constant.
 The acceleration of all objects near the surface of the earth is the same if air resistance
is ignored. We call this acceleration due to the gravitational pull of the earth g. Its value
is 9.80 m/s2 in the metric system.
The weight of an object is the force exerted by the earth (or by another large body) and
gives the object an acceleration g. This force can be found using F = ma where a = g. If
we abbreviate weight by Fw, the equation for weight is
Fw = mg
where Fw = weight
m = mass
g = acceleration due to gravity
g = 9.80 m/s2 (earth, metric)

40
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS
Example No. 1
Find the weight of 5.00 kg.

Weight versus Normal Force

 When an object is in contact with a surface, a force is exerted on that object by the
surface. This force, called a normal force, is perpendicular to the contact surface.
 Picture a brick at rest on a table (Fig. 5.6) Since the brick is at rest, the contact force,
pointing directly up from the table, must be equal to the magnitude of the brick’s weight.
 If additional bricks are stacked on top of the original brick, the total weight of the bricks
will increase, causing the normal force from the table to increase as well.
 Eventually, the table will not be able to support more and more bricks with enough of a
normal force. When this occurs, the table will break, causing the bricks to accelerate
down toward the ground.

Mass Versus Weight

 Note that the mass of an object remains the same, but its weight varies according to the
gravitational pull. For example, an astronaut of mass 75.0 kg has a weight of
Fw = mg = (75.0 kg)(9.80 m/s2) = 735 N
on the earth.
 If that astronaut lands on the moon, where the acceleration due to gravity is less than it is
on the earth, the astronaut will still have the same 75.0 kg mass but will weigh
significantly less than 735 N
 The moon has less acceleration due to gravity than the earth in part because the moon is
less massive than the earth.

41
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS
Example

Mass Versus Volume

 Do not confuse mass and volume. The volume of an object is the measure of the space
it occupies. Volume is measured in cubic units such as cm3
 The mass of an object is the amount of inertia or the amount of material it contains. The
more mass contained in an object, the greater its inertia and the more force it takes to
move it or change its motion. Compare the masses of two boxes of identical size, one
filled with books and one empty.
 The box filled with books has more mass and requires more force to move it.
Friction
 Friction is a force that resists the relative motion of two objects in contact caused by the
irregularities of the two surfaces sliding or rolling across each other, which tend to catch
on each other (Fig. 5.7).
 In general, it is found that if two rough surfaces are polished, the frictional force between
them is lessened. However, there is a point beyond which this decrease in friction is not
observed.
 If two objects are polished such that the surfaces are very smooth, then the frictional
force actually increases. (Two panes of glass provide an example.)
 This is related to the fact that friction can also be caused by the adhesion of molecules of
one surface to the molecules of the other surface.
 This adhesive force is similar to the electric forces that hold atoms together in solids.
 This adhesive force is similar to the electric force that hold atoms together in solids.

 Static friction is the force that opposes the start of the relative motion of two objects in
contact with each other.
 It is sometimes called starting friction.

42
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS
  Once the touching objects are in motion relative to each other, the friction is generally
less and is called kinetic friction or sliding friction.
 Friction is both a necessity and a hindrance in our everyday lives. Without friction,
walking, driving, swimming and many other normal activities would not be possible.
Experiments with frictional forces indicate the following general characteristics;
1. Friction is a force that always acts parallel to the surface in contact and opposite
to the direction of motion. If there is no motion, friction acts in the direction
opposite any force that tends to produce motion [Fig. 5.8(a)]. The resistance to
motion is the frictional force.

2. Static friction is greater than kinetic friction. When you push a large box
across the floor, you probably notice that it takes more force to start it moving
than to keep it moving. This is due to inertia. A box at rest tends to remain at rest,
whereas a moving box tends to continue moving. Pushing someone on a sled is a
good way to experience the difference between static and kinetic friction.
3. Friction increases as the force between the surfaces increases. It is much
easier to slide a light crate than a heavy one across the floor [Fig. 5.8(b)]. The
area of contact is not relevant. Friction depends only on the nature of the materials
in contact and the force pressing them together

To reduce kinetic friction:

1. Use smoother surfaces.
2. Use lubrication to provide a thin film between surfaces.
3. Use Teflon to greatly reduce friction between surfaces when an oil lubricant is not desirable,
such as in electric motors.
4. Substitute rolling friction for sliding friction. Rolling friction is the resistance that occurs
when an object, such as a wheel or a tire, rolls on a surface. It is usually much smaller than
sliding friction. Using ball bearings and roller
bearings greatly reduces friction.

43
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS
Law of Action and Reaction
 LAW OF ACTION AND REACTION: NEWTON’S THIRD LAW
- For every force applied by object A to object B (action), there is an equal but opposite
force exerted by object B to object A (reaction).
 When a bullet is fired from a handgun (action), the recoil felt is the reaction. These
forces are shown in Fig. 5.11. Note that the action and reaction forces never act on the
same object.

 For every interaction, the forces always occur in pairs and are equal and opposite. When
you sit on a chair, your weight pushes down on the chair; the chair pushes up with a force
equal to your weight. If the chair pushed up with a force less than your weight, you
would fall through it. If the chair pushed up with a force greater than your weight, you
would be pushed up above the seat.

44
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS
Name: ____________________________ Course & year: _________________Date: _________

Exercise 5

EXERCISES

A. Find the total force necessary to give each mass the given acceleration.
1. m = 15.0 kg, a = 2.00 m/s2 Answer: F = _________________________
2. m = 59.0 kg, a = 3.90 m/s2 Answer: F = _________________________
3. m = 42.0 kg, a = 3.00 m/s2 Answer: F = _________________________
4. m = 4.00 kg, a = 0.500 m/s2 Answer: F = _________________________
5. m = 91.0 kg, a = 6.00 m/s2 Answer: F = _________________________

B. Find the acceleration of each mass with the given total force.
6. m = 190 kg, F = 7600 N Answer: a = _________________________
7. m = 3.60 kg, F = 42.0 N Answer: a = __________________________
8. m = 0.790 kg, F = 13.0 N Answer: a = __________________________
9. m = 84.0 kg, F = 33.0 N Answer: a = __________________________
10. m = 110 kg, F = 57.0 N Answer: a = __________________________

45
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS
Name: ________________________________ Course & Year: ________________________

Evaluation No. 5

EVALUATION
For numbers (1-4, circle the letter of the correct answer.
1. Force
(a) is a vector quantity. (b) may be different from weight.
(c) does not always cause motion. (d) all of the above

2. Mass and weight

(a) are the same. (b) are different.
(c) do not change wherever you are.

3. According to Newton’s second law, the law of acceleration,

(a) acceleration is equal to mass times force.
(b) mass is equal to mass times acceleration.
(c) force is equal to mass times acceleration.
(d) none of the above

4. Friction
(a) always acts parallel to the surface of contact and opposite to the direction of
motion.
(b) acts in the direction of motion.
(c) is smaller when starting than when moving.
(d) is an imaginary force

1. Using your own words, state Newton’s first law, the law of inertia.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

2. When the same force is applied to two different masses, which will have a greater
acceleration?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

3. Explain how life would be easier or more difficult without friction

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

46
MODULE 5 – APPLIED PHYSICS