Force Fundamentals
A unit used to measure force, equivalent to the force needed to accelerate a 1-kilogram object by 1 meter per second squared.
What is a Newton (N)?
An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion, because mass gives objects this tendency to resist changes in motion.
What is inertia?
The forceful contact that occurs when two or more objects hit each other.
What is a collision?
The force that pulls objects toward Earth's surface and keeps planets in orbit.
A change in an object's speed or direction over time.
What is acceleration?
A force that is directly applied to an object by a person or another object, such as pushing a stalled car.
What is an applied force?
If a book sits completely still on a wooden table, this best describes the relationship between the forces acting on it.
What are balanced forces?
If a soccer player kicks a ball with a force of 400 Newtons, this is the exact force the ball exerts back on the player's foot.
What is 400 N in the opposite direction?
The force that resists or slows down the motion of two solid objects sliding or touching against each other.
What is friction?
The general term for moving energy, force, or motion from one object or location to another.
What is transfer?
An upward force generated by aerodynamics that helps objects like airplanes stay in the air.
What is lift?
According to Newton’s Second Law ($F = ma$), applying the exact same force to a light skateboard and a heavy truck will cause the skateboard to accelerate much faster for this reason.
What is having less mass?
The action is a person standing on the dock. The dock pushing on the person is this.
What is the reaction?
Two students engage in a tug-of-war. Student A pulls left with 150 N and Student B pulls right with 200 N. This is the magnitude and direction of the net force.
What is 50 Newtons to the right?
This specific process occurs when kinetic energy moves from a bowling ball directly into bowling pins during a strike.
What is energy transfer?
The overall force acting on an object after all the forces are combined.
What is net force?
When one object pushes or pulls on another object, the second object pushes or pulls back with an equal force in the opposite direction.
What is action/reaction?
During a collision between a heavy delivery truck and a small parked bicycle, this is how the impact force on the truck compares to the impact force on the bicycle.
What is with equal magnitude (equal strength)?
A box is pushed North with 12 Newtons and South with 7 Newtons. This is the resulting net force and direction of acceleration.
What is 5 Newtons North?
Tracking how an object's location changes as time passes, often plotted on a line graph to show speed and motion.
What is position over time?
A forward-propelling force, such as the force produced by a rocket or jet engine.
What is thrust?
A sled sliding down a snow-covered hill is speeding up because the forces acting on it are described this way.
What are unbalanced forces?
This law states that the total momentum of a system of colliding objects remains unchanged unless acted upon by an outside force.
What is the Law of Conservation of Momentum?
It is much harder to start pushing a heavy, fully loaded shopping cart than an empty one because the filled cart has significantly more of this property.
What is mass?
A vector quantity that specifies both how strong a push or pull is and the path Along which it acts.
What is the direction of a force?