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Chapter 4

Newtons Laws of Motion

4.1 Forces and Interactions

A force is a push or a pull. It is that which causes an
object to accelerate. The unit of force in the metric system
is the Newton. Force is a vector quantity.








Superposition of Forces
Any number of external forces applied to an object has
the same effect as a single force equal to the vector sum
of the external forces.








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4.2 Newtons First Law of Motion

Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform
motion in a straight line unless it is compelled by a force
to change that state.

That is, a body acted on by NO NET EXTERNAL
FORCE moves with constant velocity (which may be
zero) and zero acceleration.


!
r
F = 0
"


When the net external force acting on an object is zero,
the object is said to be in a state of translational
equilibrium.


4.3 Newtons Second Law of Motion

The net force !F
r
acting on an object of mass m is
equal to the product of the objects mass with its
acceleration a
r
.

! = a m F
r
r


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Note that the net force (or resultant force)!F
r
is in the
same direction as the acceleration vector a
r
. This is
illustrated in the following picture.











4.4 Mass and Weight

The mass of an object is that property that specifies how
much resistance the object exhibits to changes in its
velocity (a measure of the inertia of the object).

Mass is a scalar quantity.

The unit of mass in the metric system is the kilogram.

Weight is a force exerted on a body by the earth. Weight
is thus a vector quantity.


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Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation:
Every particle (with non-zero mass) in the universe
attracts every other particle (with non-zero mass) with a
force that is directly proportional to the product of their
masses and inversely proportional to the square of the
distance between them. That is,



2
2 1
r
m m
G F =
r


where


G = 6.67x10
-11
Nm
2
/kg
2
= the universal gravitational
constant.
r = distance from the center of mass of one particle to the
center of mass of the other particle.

The attractive force exerted by the Earth on an object is
called the gravitational force

!
r
F
g
or
r
W . This force is called
the weight of the object, and its direction is toward the
center of the Earth. The weight of an object of mass m on
the Earth has a magnitude equal to:


!
r
F
g
= Weight = G
M
E
m
R
E
2


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The quantity
2
E
E
R
M
G appears so often that it is given the
name g
r
or simply g. This quantity is also called the
gravitational field generated by the Earth at locations near
its surface. The gravitational field g
r
is a vector quantity
with a direction toward the center of the Earth, and with a
magnitude defined as

2
E
E
R
M
G g g = =
r

using

G = 6.67x10
-11
Nm
2
/kg
2

M
E
= 5.98x10
24
kg (mass of the Earth)
R
E
= 6.37x10
6
m (radius of the Earth)

yields a value of g = 9.8 m/s
2
. One can thus say that the
weight of an object of mass m on the surface of the Earth
is


!
r
W = m
r
g

where g
r
= the acceleration due to gravity (or the
gravitational field), always directed toward the center of
the Earth.

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Mass and weight are thus related quantities. The
magnitude of a bodys weight W is directly proportional
to its mass m.



4.5 Newtons Third Law (Action-Reaction Law)

If body A exerts a force

!
r
F
Aon B
on body B, then body
B exerts an equal (magnitude) and opposite (direction)
force

!
r
F
Bon A
on body A.


!
r
F
Aon B
= "
r
F
Bon A


Forces always occur in pairs.




Essentially, you cannot touch without being touched!








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4.6 Solving Problems with Newtons Laws: Free-Body
Diagrams

Objects in Equilibrium:
An object is said to be in mechanical equilibrium when
two conditions are met:

(1) The net force acting on the object is equal to zero.

This ensures translational equilibrium.
From ! = a m F
r
r
we see that if
!
= 0 F
r
, then

t tan cons v 0 a = ! = !
r r


That is, the object is
(i) at rest and stays at rest or
(ii) the object moves in a straight line with constant
speed.

(2) The net torque acting on the object is zero.

This ensures rotational equilibrium. The object is
(i) at rest and stays at rest or
(ii) the object spins about a fixed axis with constant
angular speed.

We will discuss rotational equilibrium in chapter 10.
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Strategy for applying Newtons laws of motion:

(1) Isolate (consider) a part of the system or the entire
system and draw the forces acting ON it. This is
called a free-body diagram.

(2) Apply Newtons 2
nd
law of motion in component
form. That is, solve

! !
= =
y y x x
ma F ma F

(3) Solve for any unknown quantities.

(4) If the acceleration of the object is constant, then you
may also apply the kinematic equations of motion.