Newtons Laws of Motion

(1) Introduction

While studying kinematics,we have already studied about the position ,displacement and
acceleration of a moving particle
Here in this chapter,we would take our understanding one step further to learn abouts
origins of accleration or force
Here we will specifically consider the cause behind the moving objects i.e what causes
the objects to move
Thus we will learn the theory of motion based on the ideas of mass and force and the
laws connecting these physical concepts to the kinematics quantities
So we will begin by stating the Newton's law's of motion which are of critical importance
in classical mechanics
Laws of motion as stated by Newtons in his principle are
(i) Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in straight line ,unless
compelled to change that state by force imposed upon it
(ii) Change of motion of an objects is proportional to the force acting on it and is made in
the direction of the straight line along the direction of force
(iii) To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction

(2) Force

Concept of force is central to all of physics whether it is classical physics,nuclear

physics,quantum physics or any other form of physics
So what is force? when we push or pull anybody we are said to exert force on the body
Push or pull applied on a body does not exactly define the force in general.We can define
force as an influence causing a body at rest or moving with constant velocity to undergo
an accleration
There are many ways in which one body can exert force on another body
Few examples are given below
(a)Stretched springs exerts force on the bodies attached to its ends
(b)Compressed air in a container exerts force on the walls of the container
(c) Force can be used to deform a flexible object
There are lots of examples you could find looking around yourself
Force of gravitational attraction exerted by earth is a kind of force that acts on every
physical body on the earth and is called the weight of the body.

Mechanical and gravitation forces are not the only forces present infact all the forces in
Universe are based on four fundamental forces
(i) Strong and weak forces: These are forces at very short distance (10-05 m) and are
responsible for interaction between neutrons and proton in atomic nucleus
(ii) Electromagnetic forces: EM force acts between electric charges
(iii) Gravitational force -it acts between the masses
In mechanics we will only study about the mechanical and gravitational forces.
Force is a vector quantity and it needs both the magnitude as well as direction for its
complete description.
SI unit of force is Newton (N) and CGS unit is dyne where
1 dyne= 1005 N
We have already stated Newton's First law of motion which says that a body would
continue to be in state of rest or continue to move with constant velocity unless acted
upon by a net external force.
Here the net external force on the body is the vector sum of all the external forces acting
on the body.
When the body at rest or in a state of motion with uniform velocity then in both the cases
acceleration is zero. This implies that a=0 for F=0
When net forces i.e. vector sum of all the forces acting on the body is zero. The body is
said to be in equilibrium .When rotational motion is involved, net torque on body should
also be zero i.e. there is no change in either translational or rotational motion.
Since forces can be combined according to the rules of vector addition. Thus for a body
to be in equilibrium
R=F=0
or in component form
Fx=0
Fy=0
These are the condition for the body in translational equilibrium
We will discuss about rotational equilibrium while studying torque and rotational motion
Thus Newton's First law of motion quantitatively defines the concept of force as a
influence that changes the state of motion of the body
It does not say anything about what has to be done to keep object moving that is once the
body gains motion by the application of force would it always
According to first law if we completely eliminates frictional forces, no forward force at
all would be required to keep an object ( say a block on table) .

(4) Inertia and Mass

From First law of motion an object at rest would not move unless it is acted upon by a
force
This inherent property of objects to remain at rest unless acted upon by a force is called
inertia of rest
Now consider the case of an object moving with uniform velocity along the straight line
.Again from Newton's law it would continue to move with uniform
This inherent property by virtue of which a body in state of uniform motion tend to
maintain its uniform motion is called inertia of motion
Combining these two statements 'The property of an object to remain in state of rest or
uniform rectilinear motion unless acted upon by a force is called inertia
Mass of any body is the measure of inertia .For example if we apply equal amount of
force on two objects of different mass (say m1 and
m2 such that m1 > m2 ) Then acceleration of both the object would be different (i.e. , a1 <
a2 )
Acceleration of object having larger mass would be lesser then the acceleration of object
having smaller mass
Thus larger the mass of the body ,smaller would be the acceleration and larger would be
the inertia
Newton's first law of motion revealing this fundamental property of matter i.e inertia is
also known as law of inertia

(5) Newton's second law of motion

Newton's first law of motion qualitatively defines the concept of force and the principle
of inertia
For an body at rest, application of force causes a changed in its existing state and
application of force on a body moving with uniform velocity would give the body under
consideration as acceleration
Newton's second law of motion is a relation between force and acceleration
Newton's second law of motion says that
" The net force on a body is equal to the product of mass and acceleration of the body"
Mathematically
Fnet=ma
(1)
Where Fnet is the vector sum of all the forces acting on the body

Above equation -(1) can be resolved along x,y and z components .Thus in component
form
Fnetx=max
Fnety=may
Fnetz=maz
Component of acceleration along a given axis is caused only by the net component of
force along that axis only not by the components of force along other axis.
Newton's second law of motion is completely consistent with newton first law of motion
as from equation (1) F=0 implies that a=0
For a body moving under the influence of force, acceleration at any instant is determined
by the force at that instant not by the previous motion of the particle.
Newton's second law of motion is strictly applicable to a single particle .In case of rigid
bodies or system of particles, it refers to total external forces acting on the system
excluding the internal forces in the system.

(6)Newton's third law of motion

Statement of newton's third law of motion is To every action there is always an equal and
opposite reaction".
Thus, whenever a body exerts force on another then another object exert an equal force on
previous body but in opposite direction
Force example motion of rocket depends on the third law of motion i.e., action and reaction
.Rocket exerts action force on gas jet in backward direction
Force of action and reaction acts on different objects i.e.,
Force object 1 exerts on object 2= Force object 2 exerts on object 1
i.e.,
F12=-F21
Action=-(Reaction)
According to Newtonian mechanics force is always a mutual interaction between the bodies and
force always occurs in pairs
Equal and opposite mutual forces between two bodies is the basic idea between Newton's third
law of motion
While considering a system of particles ,internal force always cancel away in pairs i.e. consider
two particles in a body if F12 and
F21 are internal forces between particle system 1 and 2 then they add up to give a null internal
force. Same way internal forces for the particles

(7) Applying Newton's law of motion

Newton's law of motion ,we studied in earlier topics are the foundation of mechanics and now
we look forward to solve problems in mechanics

In general, we deal with mechanical systems consisting of different objects exerting force on
each other
While solving a problem choose any part of the assembly and apply the laws of motion to that
part including all the forces on the chosen part of the assembly due to remaining parts of the
assembly
Following steps can be followed while solving the problems in mechanics
1)Read the problem carefully
2) Draw a schematic diagram showing parts of the assembly for example it may be a single
particle or two blocks connected to string going over pulley etc.
3) Identify the object of prime interest and make a list of all the forces acting on the concerned
object due to all other objects of the assembly and exclude the force applied by the object of
prime interest on the other parts of the assembly
4) Indicate the forces acting on the concerned object with arrow and Label each force for
example tension on the object under consideration can be labelled by letter T
5) Draw a free body diagram of the object of interest based on the labelled picture. Free body
diagram for the object under consideration shows all the forces exerted on this object by the
other bodies. Do not forget to consider weight W=mg of the body while labelling the forces
acting on the body
6) If additional objects are involved draw separate free body diagram for them also
7)Resolve the rectangular components of all the forces acting on the body
8) Write Newton second law of equation for the body and solve them to find out the unknown
quantities
9) Do not forget to employ Newton's third law of motion for action reaction pair which results in
null resultant force
Following solved example would clearly illustrate how to apply Newton's laws of motion
following the above given procedure

Solved Example :
Question:
A horizontal forces of magnitude 500N pulls two blocks of masses m 1=10 kg and m2=20 kg which are
connected by the light inextensible string and lying on the horizontal frictionless surface. Find the
tension in the strings and acceleration of each mass when forces is applied on mass
m2? Solution:
Given that force is applied on the block m2 as shown in the figure below

Let T be the tension in the string and a be the accleration of each mass .Now we will draw free
body diagrams for each masses

Weights of the blocks m1g and m2g are balanced by their normal reaction R1 and R2 respectively.
The equations of motion of the two massed are found using Newton's second law of motion
m1a=T ...............................(1)
m2a=F-T ............................(2)
Dividing 1 by 2
we get
T=m1F/(m1+m2)
Substituting the given values
T=166.7 N
Using value of T in equation 1 ,we find
a=16.67 m/s2
Above sample problem shows how to solve a typical mechanics problem. Similarly by adopting given
procedure we can solve other such problems.

(8) Inertial frame of Reference

Inertial frame of references are those frames of reference in which newton's first and second
law of motion is always hold true
A frame of reference in which Newton's law are not valid is called non-inertial frame of
reference
In an inertial frame if a body is not acted by external force, it continues to be in state of rest or
uniform translatory motion. Thus in an inertial frame if the body is not acted upon by an
external force then acceleration would be zero
a=(d2r/dt2)=0
If a frame is inertial frame ,then all those frames which are moving with constant velocity
relative to the previous frame are also inertial frames

Inertial frame of reference are necessarily unaccelerated frames because if the frame is
accelerated the particle moving with uniform velocity will appear <="" p="">

(9) Fictitious ( or Pseudo ) Forces

We already know about Non-inertial frame of reference .All the accelerated and rotating frame
of reference are non-inertial frame of reference
Consider an internal frame of reference S and let S' be any other frame moving with acceleration
w.r.t to frame S as shown in the below figure

Now if no external forces are acting on particle P .Then its acceleration would be zero in Frame S
but in frame S, an observer will find an acceleration -a0 acting on the particle.
The observer force on particle P of mass m in Frame S' is -ma0
But in reality no such force is acting on the particle and particle appears to be accelerated in this
non-inertial frame of reference. Such one force is known as Pseudo or Fictitious Force. Hence
Pseudo Force on particle is
FP=-ma0
Now if we apply Fi on the particle and ai is the observed acceleration of particle in S
frame(Inertial frame) The according to Newton's law
Fi=mai
For calculating net force in accelerated frame consider both the frames S and S' coincide at time
t=0 .After time t let ri and rn be the position vector of the particle in frame S and S' respectively
The relation between ri and rn is
ri =rn +(1/2)a0t2 Where a0 is the acceleration of frame S' w.r.t frame S
Differentiating the equation w.r.t time twice
ai=an + a0
or mai-ma0=man
=> F0 + FP=FN
This equation gives observed force in accelerated frame of reference

Solved Examples
Question 1 Force exerted on a body changes it's
(a) Direction of motion
(b) Momentum
(c) Kinetic energy
(d) All the above
Solution: A body acted upon by a certain force produces acceleration i.e. it undergoes change in it's
velocity. hence choice (d) is correct
Question 2 there are two statements
A Rate of change of momentum corresponds to force
B Rate of change of momentum corresponds to Kinetic Energy
Which of the following is correct
(a) A only
(b) B only
(c) Both A and B are correct
(d) Both A and B are wrong
Solution
F=dp/dt so a is correct

Question 3 A truck and car are moving on a plane road with same kinetic Energy. They are brought to
rest by application of brakes which provide equal retarding forces. Which of the following statements is
true.
(a) Distance travelled by truck is shorter then car before coming to rest
(b) Distance travelled by car is shorter then truck before coming to rest
(c) Distance travelled depends on individual velocity of both the vehicles
(d) Both will travel same distance before coming to rest
Solution 3
By work energy theorem we know
KEf-KEi=Work done
So in this case

Initial KE=retarding force * distance travelled

Since kinetic energy is same and retarding force is equal
Distance travelled will be same

Question 4 A block A of mass m1 is released from top of smooth inclined plane and it slides down the
plane. Another block of mass m2 such that m2 > m1is dropped from the same point and falls vertically
downwards. Which one of the following statements will be true if the friction offered by air is negligible?
(a) Both blocks will reach ground at same time
(b) Both blocks will reach ground with the same speed
(c) speed of both the blocks when they reach ground will depend on their masses
(d) Block A reaches ground before block B
Solution 4
since velocity of block when it reaches the ground is given by v=(2gh) 1/2 and it is independent of the
mass the correct choice will be (b).

Question 5 Which of the following observer is/are non-inertial

a. A child revolving in the merry ground
b. A driver in a train moving with constant velocity v
c. A passenger in a bus which is slowing down to a stop
d. None of these
Solution 5
Since centripetal acceleration is present in merry round it is non inertial frame of reference
Since bus is slowing down to a stop, it means it is experiencing a retardation ,so it is non inertial frame of
reference

Question 6 there are two statements

A Newtons first law in valid from the pilot in an aircraft which is taking off
B Newtons first law in valid from the observer in a train moving with constant velocity
Which of the following is correct
(a) A only
(b) B only
(c) Both A and B are correct
(d) Both A and B are wrong

Solution 6
We know that Newtons law is invalid in Non-inertial frame of reference, now since acceleration is
present in Ist case. So answer is B

Question 7A IITJEE text book of mass M rests flat on a horizontal table of mass m placed on the ground.
Let RX->Y be the constant force exerted by the body x on body Y. According to Newton third law, which of
the following is an action-reaction pair of forces?
a. (M+m)g and Rtable->book
b. Rground->table and mg+Rbook->table
c. Rground->table and Rtable->ground
d Mg and Rtable->book
Solution 7
Action reaction pair acts on different body and always are in opposite direction. We will have to draw
free body diagram for each part in this case.

Question 8 Choose the correct alternative

a. The acceleration of a moving particle is always in the direction of its velocity
b. Velocity and acceleration vectors of a moving particle may have any angle between 0 and 360
between them
c. Velocity and acceleration vectors of a moving particle may have any angle between 0 and 180
between them
d. If the acceleration vector is always perpendicular to the velocity vector of a moving particle, the
velocity vector does not change
Solution 8
In circular motion, acceleration vector is perpendicular to velocity and velocity is also changing.
Now acceleration and velocity can have any angle between
Question 9 there are two statements
A Newtons first law in valid from the pilot in an aircraft which is taking off
B Newtons first law in valid from the observer in a train moving with constant velocity
Which of the following is correct
(a) A only

(b) B only
(c) Both A and B are correct
(d) Both A and B are wrong
Solution 9 Newtons law is valid from Inertial frame of reference
when the plane is taking off, it has acceleration so it cannot be inertial frame of reference
When the observer is train moving with constant velocity, so no acceleration is involved. So it is Inertial
frame. Hence Newton law is valid
Question 10.A body of mass 5 kg starts from the origin with an initial velocity u=30i+40j m/sec. If the
constant force acts on the body F=-(i+5j) N. The time in which y component of the velocity becomes zero
is
a. 5 sec
b. 80 sec
c. 20 sec
d. 40 sec
Solution 10.
Force=-(i+5j) N
Mass =5 Kg
initial velocity u=30i+40j m/sec
Acceleration:a=F/m=-(i+5j)/5=-.2i-j
Y component of initial velocity is 40 m/s
Acceleration in that direction -1 m/s2
So
v=u+at
0=40-1t
or t=40 sec
Hence d is correct

Question 11.A particle is acted upon by a force of constant magnitude which is always perpendicular to
the velocity of the particle. The motion of the particle takes place in a plane.it follows that
a. velocity is constant
b. acceleration is constant
c. KE is constant
d. Particle moves in a circular path

Solution 11
Since force is always perpendicular to the body, work done by it will be zero
So kinetic energy is constant
It is the case of uniform circular motion
Velocity magnitude is constant but direction is constantly changing
Acceleration is constant but direction is constantly changing
Hence c and d are constant

Question 12A small mass m is suspended from one end of a vertical string. and then whirled in a
horizontal circle at a constant speed v.
Which of the followings is true
a.The strings stays vertical
b.The string becomes inclined to the vertical.
c.There is no force on mass m except its weight
d.The angle of inclination of the string does not depend on the v
e.The centripetal force on m is mg
Solution 12
Since the body is rotating on a horizontal circle, String will be inclined to the horizontal
It is shown in figure
The forces acting on the body are weight and tension in the string
Vertical component of the tension will balance out the weight of the body
Horizontal component will provide the required centripetal force for the circular motion
if T is the tension and W be the weight and be the angle of inclination
then
Tcos =Wg
And Tsin =mv2/R
So angle of inclination depends on the speed of the motion
So only correct answer is b
Question 13.The tension in cable supporting an elevator is equal to th weight of the elevetor.The
elevator may be
a. going up with incresing speed
b. going down with increasing speed
c. going up with uniform speed
d. going down with uniform speed.
Solution 13
Since the tension is the string equals weight of the elevator,It means resultant force is zero

So acceleration must be zero

Hence c and d are correct answer

Question 14 A reference frame attached to the earth

a. is an inertial frame by definition
b. cannot be inertial frame as earth is revolving around the sun
c. is an inertial frame because Newton's law are applicable in this frame
d. cannot be inertial frame because earth is rotating about its own axis
Solution 14
Earth cannot be inertial frame as it is revolving around the sun and also rotating about its axis
Question 15By means of rope ,a body of weight W is moved vertically upward with constant
acceleration a .Find the tensile force in the rope
a. W(1+a/g)
b W(1-a/g)
cW
d. none of the above
Solution 15
Forces acting on the body
Tensile force vertically upward=S
Weight of the body vertically downward=W
Body has acceleration a vertically upwards
Net force on the body must provide the acceleration
so S-W=(W/g)a
or S=W(1+a/g)