PHYSICS FORM 4 [FORCE AND MOTION CHAPTER 2]

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2.7 SAFETY FEATURES IN VEHICLES

There are several safety features installed to a vehicle in order to reduce serious injury to the driver and passengers. (a) Dashboard covered with soft materials to reduce injury due to passengers knocking on it. (b) Air bags will expand during collision so as to prevent the driver from smashing directly into the car steering. The collision time will be lengthen and the impulsive force can be reduce and prevent (c) Safety belts to lengthen the collision time and prevent the passengers from being thrown due to their inertial when the car is forced to slow down suddenly. (d) Rubber bumper - absorbs impact in minor accidents, thus prevents damage to the car also lengthen the collision time and to reduce the impulsive force. (e) Front crumple zone design to crumple upon impact. It increases the impact time and reduce the impulsive force on the car. (f) Anti-lock braking system (ABS) will not immediately stop the car once the brakes are applied. The car be momentarily brought to rest so that the force of impulsive is smaller.

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2.8 GRAVITY

1. 2.

The concept of gravitational force was introduced by Sir Isaac Newton who, on seeing an apple falls on his head. According to Newton, objects fall because they are pulled towards the Earth by the force of gravity.

The pull of gravitational force; (a) keeps things on the earth. (b) brings things down to earth when they are thrown upwards (c) holds the moon in its orbit round the Earth (d) captures returning space capsules and pulls them into orbit. 3. 4. The pull of gravity causes objects to fall with acceleration. This means that objects that fall are moving with increasing velocity. The magnitude of the acceleration due to gravity depends on the strength of the gravitational field.

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Free Fall
1. An object is falling freely when it is falling under the force of gravity only.

Figure 1 2. 3. 4. Figure 1 show a free fall in a vacuum cylinder (where air resistance does not exist) of a coin and a peace of paper. The both objects reach the bottom of the cylinder at the same time. A piece of tissue paper (fall in atmosphere) does not fall freely because its fall is affected by air resistance. A heavier golf ball can be considered to be falling freely because the air resistance is small compared to the pull of gravity and therefore is negligible.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Objects dropped under the influence of the pull of gravity accelerate at a constant rate. This acceleration is known as the gravitational acceleration, g. The value of g is 9.8 m s-2. In calculation, the value of g is often taken to be 10 m s-2 for simplicity. The acceleration due to gravity does not depend on the mass and shape of the falling object. All objects falling freely with the same acceleration. Tips when an object falls; g = 9.8 m s-2 when an object is thrown upwards; g = 9.8 m s-2 At the highest point, v = 0 m s-1

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The experiment to determine the value of acceleration due to gravity, g. 1. Apparatus/material: - Ticker timer, ticker tape, 12 V a.c electrical power supply, retort stand, weights (50 g- 250 g), Gclamp, cellophane tape.

2.

Procedure: - switch on the ticker timer and release the slotted weight from a height of about 1 m. - calculate the acceleration from the dots on the ticker tape. - repeat the steps for slotted weights of 100g, 150g, 200g and 250 g. Results: Mass of slotted weight, m/g 50 100 150 200 250 gravitational acceleration, g is calculated by substituting u, v and t into the formula g =
v u t

3.

Acceleration due to gravity, g/ ms-2

Weight, W and Gravitational Field, g

1. Gravitational field is a region around the earth in which an object experiences a force towards the centre of the earth. This force is the gravitational attraction between the object and the earth. The gravitational field strength, g can be calculated as follows: g= 3.
F m

2.

Where F = Gravitational force m = mass of body

The gravitational field strength at the surface of the earth is 9.8 N kg-1/kg ms-2. 4

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4.

The weight of an object is defined as the gravitational force acting on the object and can be calculated as follows; Where, m = mass W = mg g = gravitational acceleration The unit of weight is Newton, N.

5.

Example 1 A iron ball is dropped from the top of a building and takes 2 s to reach the surface of the earth. What is the height of the building? (g = 9.8 m s-2) Example 2 A rock has a mass of 20.0 kg and weight of 90.0 N on the surface of a planet. (a) What is the gravitational field strength on the surface of the planet? (b) What are the mass and the weight of the rock on the surface of the Earth where its gravitational field strength is 9.8 N kg-1?

Solution Using the formula, s

= ut + gt2 = 0 + x 9.8 x 22 = 19.6 m

Solution

Solution Example 2 Have you ever seen an astronaut walking on the Moon? It is known that the acceleration due to gravity near the surface of Moon is just 1/6 of that on the surface of earth. (a) Find the weight of a 50 kg man on the surface of Moon. (b) If the 50 kg man can jump to a height of 50 cm on the Earth, find the maximum height reached by him on the surface of moon. (Assume that his initial speed is the same on the earth and on the moon)

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2.9 FORCES IN EQUILIBRIUM

Examples of forces in equilibrium

A book resting on a table

A skydiver falling at a constant velocity

1. 2. 3.

When forces act upon an object and it remains stationery or moves at a constant velocity, the object is said to be in a___________________________ When equilibrium is reached, the _________________ acting on the object is __________ i.e there is ___________________________ acting upon it. Newtons Third Law of Motion states that _______________________________________________

Figure 1 4. Figure 1 shows a stationery block of wood resting on a table. The forces acting on the block of wood are: (a) The weight, W, which is acting downwards. (Action) (b) The normal reaction, R, which is acting upwards. (Reaction) The Weight, W, is balanced by the Normal Reaction, R. Hence, the block of wood is in a __________________________.

5. 6.

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Figure 2 7. Figure 2 shows a weight hanger attached to a string and which is in a stationery state. The forces acting on the weight hanger are: (a) The weight, W, which acts downwards. (Action) (b) The tension, T, which acts upwards. (Reaction) The weight, W, is balanced by the tension T of the string. Hence, the weight hanger is in a state of equilibrium.

8. 9.

Figure 3 10. The cat resting on an inclined plane as shown in figure 3 is also in equilibrium. The three forces acting on the cat cancel out each other so that the resultant force is zero.

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Addition of Forces
1. A resultant force is a single force that represents the combined effect of two or more forces in magnitude and direction. The directions of the forces have to be taken into considerations when forces are added. (a) Two forces that act along the same direction. Resultant Force, F =8N+3N = 11 N The resultant force is found by adding the magnitude of the forces. Two forces acting in the same direction with magnitudes 8 N and 3 N respectively will have a resultant force of 11 N, as shown in figure 4. Resultant force, F = F1 + F2 (b) Two forces that act in opposite directions Resultant Force, F =8N3N =5N The two forces with magnitude 8 N and 3 N acting respectively in opposite directions will have a resultant of 5 N, as shown in figure 5. Resultant force, F = F1 F2

(c)

When two forces act at a point at an angle to each other, the resultant force can be determined by: (i) Adding forces using parallelogram of force.

(i) (ii) (iii)

Draw the forces F1 and F2 from a point with an angle of with each other. Draw another two lines to complete the parallelogram. Draw the diagonal of the parallelogram. The diagonal represents the resultant force, F and its direction, , can be determined by measuring the angle between the diagonal with either one side of the parallelogram.

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(ii)

Adding force using triangle of force (tip-to-tip method)

(d)

If the two forces are acting at right angle or perpendicular to each other, the resultant force can be determined by using Pythagoras theorem and trigonometry.

Example

30 N

40 N A carton is acted on by two forces of 30 N and 40 N which are at right angles to each other as shown in figure 8. Determine the resultant force acting on the carton. Solution By using the triangle method; 40 N

30 N

The resultant force, F is the magnitude of the hypotenuse of the triangle F = 30 2 + 40 2 = 50 N tan =

40 30

= 53.10 The resultant force is 50 N with bearing 53.10 9

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Resolution Force
1. A single force can be resolved into two perpendicular components.

2.

Example A tourist is pulling a bag with a force 12.0 N at an angle of 300 to the horizontal floor. What is the horizontal and vertical component of the force? Solution Fx and Fy are the vertical and horizontal components of the forces. Magnitude of Fx = 12 cos 300 = 10.4 N Magnitude of Fy = 12 sin 300 = 6.0 N

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Example

The diagram above shows a block of wood (on a smooth surface) being pulled by a force of 12 N. What is the horizontal component of the force? Solution The horizontal component of the force = 12 x cos 600 =6N [Only a force of 6 N needs to act on the block of wood in order for it to move horizontal to the right] Example The figure shows a box is being pulled by a man.

What is the magnitude of the resultant force that causes the box to move horizontally?

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Example A workman pushes a carton of mass 50 kg up an inclined plane into a lorry. The inclined plane makes an angle of 450 with the horizontal floor and the frictional force between the inclined plane and the carton is 135 N. If the workman pushes the cartoon with a force of 500 N (a) Can the carton move up the inclined plane? (b) What is the acceleration of the carton?

Solution

(a) Applied force on the carton towards the top of the inclined plane, F = 500 N.
-

Opposing force along the entire length of the inclined plane = component of weight down the plane + frictional force = 500 sin 450 + 135 N = 488.6 N

(b)

The resultant force acting on an inclined plane, = 500 N 488.6 N = 11.4 N From formula; F = ma F a= m 11.4 = 50 = 0.23 m s-2

The carton is able to move upwards because the applied force, F = 500 N is larger than the opposing downward force.

Three forces in equilibrium.

Problems involving three forces in equilibrium can be solved either by, (a) Resolution of force, then follow by
Total force to the left = Total force to the right Total force upwards = Total force downwards

(b)

Drawing a closed tail-to-head triangle of force.

Figure shows a wooden block supported by two strings. The tensions of the strings are T1 and T2 respectively. Since the wooden block is in equilibrium, the resultant force is zero. Hence, by taking the horizontal components of forces, T1 sin = T2 sin By taking the vertical components,
W = T1 cos + T2 cos

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T1 cos + T2 cos

T2 T1
T1 sin T2 sin

W
Example

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Example Figure 9 shows an aeroplane model with a mass of 450 g is hung from a ceiling with two strings.

Figure 9 Calculate the tension on each string. Assume that the system is in equilibrium. [g = 9.8 ms-2]

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Solution Weight of aeroplane, W = =

0.5 x 9.8 4.9 N

By resolve the forces vertically, T sin 300 + T sin 300 = 4.9 2 T sin 300 = 4.9 2 T (0.5) = 4.9
T = 4.9 N for each string.

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