Physics Terms
The property of an object that resists changes in motion.
What is inertia?
An object moving in a straight line at constant speed has this value of acceleration.
What is zero?
Convert 250 cm to meters.
What is 2.5 m?
A seatbelt keeps you from flying forward when a car stops suddenly because of this law.
What is Newton’s First Law?
When a car stops suddenly and your body keeps moving forward, this concept explains why.
What is inertia?
This quantity includes both speed and direction and can change even if speed stays the same.
What is velocity?
An object dropped from rest will have this velocity after 1 second (ignore air resistance).
What is about 9.8 m/s downward?
Convert 1.2 km to meters.
What is 1200 m?
Increasing the mass while keeping force constant does this to acceleration.
What is it decreases?
A heavier grocery cart needs more force to speed up than a lighter one because of this property.
What is mass?
The rate of change of velocity that can result from speeding up, slowing down, or changing direction.
What is acceleration?
An object thrown upward slows down because its acceleration points in this direction.
What is downward?
Convert 15 m/s to km/h.
What is 54 km/h?
On a horizontal surface with no friction, a 5 kg box pulled by a 10 N horizontal force has this acceleration (show your math). According to Newton’s Second Law, acceleration depends on these two quantities.
What is a=F/m a=10/5 a=2 m/s^2?
A phone slides across a table and slowly comes to rest. Which force best explains why it stops moving?
What is friction?
This term describes the combined effect of all forces acting on an object.
What is net force?
After 3 seconds of free fall, this is the approximate speed of an object.
d = v x t , d =vot + 1/2at^2, Vf= Vo+ at, Vf^2=Vo^2+2ad
What is about 30 m/s?
Mr.Lansner cycles at 8 m/s. This is approximately this speed in km/h.
What is about 29 km/h?
A box is pushed across the floor at constant speed. This tells you something specific about the forces.
What is forces are balanced/net force is zero?
A car moves at a constant speed around a circular track.
What proves that a force must be acting on the car?
What is the car’s direction is changing, so it has acceleration, therefore it has force according to Newton's Second Law F=ma?
This quantity depends on gravitational field strength, while mass does not.
What is weight?
Two balls are dropped from the same height, one twice as massive. Compare their accelerations.
What are they the same?
A car travels 90 km/h. Express this speed in m/s.
What is 25 m/s?
Two objects have the same net force applied. The heavier object (greater mass) will have this compared to the lighter one.
What is a smaller acceleration?
A student claims, “Objects fall faster if they are heavier.” What real-world observation seems to support this, and why is it misleading?
What is air resistance affects lighter objects more, but gravity accelerates all masses equally?