Newton's Laws of Motion

Flashcards based on the principles and definitions associated with Newton's laws of motion.

Newton's First Law of Motion

Also known as the law of inertia; states that an object remains in its state of motion unless acted upon by a net external force.

Inertia

The tendency of matter to resist a change in its state of motion; greater mass results in greater inertia.

Newton's Second Law of Motion

The law of acceleration which states that the acceleration of an object is proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass.

Action-Reaction Pair

Forces that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, acting on two different bodies.

Momentum

The product of the mass and velocity of an object; a vector quantity that describes the motion of an object.

Conservation of Momentum

In an isolated system, the total momentum before an event (e.g., a collision) is equal to the total momentum after the event.

Force

An interaction that causes an object to change its state of motion; measured in Newtons (N).

Acceleration

The rate of change of velocity of an object; depends on the net force acting on the object and its mass.

Mass

A measure of the amount of matter in an object; typically measured in kilograms (kg).

Galileo's Experiment

Experiments that demonstrated inertia using inclined planes to show that an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force.