Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion

 Newton’s 1st Law (Law of Inertia)

 The first law of motion states that an object will not change its speed or direction
unless an unbalanced force (a force which is distant from the reference point)
affects it.
 Another name for the first law of motion is the law of inertia.
 If balanced forces act on an object it doesn’t accelerate or change in direction.
 This means it doesn’t have momentum.
 Example of Newton’s 1st Law of Motion
 If you slide a hockey puck on ice, eventually it will stop, because of friction on the
ice. It will also stop if it hits something, like a player’s stick or a goalpost.
 If you kicked a ball in space, it would keep going forever, because there is no
gravity, friction or air resistance going against it. It will only stop going in one
direction if it hits something like a meteorite or reaches the gravity field of another
planet.
 If you are driving in your car at a very high speed and hit something, like a brick
wall or a tree, the car will come to an instant stop, but you will keep from moving
forward. This is why cars have airbags to stop you from smashing into the
windscreen.
 Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion (Law of Acceleration)
 The second law of motion states that acceleration is produced when an
unbalanced force acts on an object (mass).
 The more net force has to be used to move it.
 Examples of Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion
 If you use the same force to push a truck and a car, the car will have more
acceleration than the truck, because the car has less mass.
 It is easier to push an empty shopping cart than a full one, because the full
shopping cart has more mass than the empty one. This means that more force is
required to push the full shopping cart.
 By simply standing up, because the force of gravity is pulling you down to the
ground but the ground resists, causing it to create a reaction force in the opposite
direction to balance the forces. This causes you to stay standing still and not to
sink into the ground or float away.
 Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion (Law of Interaction)
 The third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction that acts with the same momentum and the opposite velocity.
 Examples of Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion
 When you jump off a small rowing boat into water, you will push yourself towards
the water. The same force you used to push forward will make the boat move
backwards.
 When air rushes out of a balloon, the opposite reaction is that the balloon flies
up.
 When you dive off of a diving board, you push down on the spring board. The
board springs back and forces you into the air.
 NOTES
 Inertia- an object’s resistance to change in motion
 Equations
 Fnet = ma
 m = Fnet / a
 a = Fnet / m
 Units
 For Force = Newton (N)
 For Mass = Kilograms (kg)
 For Acceleration = Meters per Second per Second (m/s²)
 Constant Gravitational Force on Earth is 9.8 m/s²
 Force = Weight (N)
 Force = Acceleration (Directly Proportional)
 Weight = mass x gravity (mg)
 Acceleration = Gravity (Directly Proportional)