Physics Final terms

Air Resistance

The force of friction that is a result of an object moving through the air.

Coefficient of Friction

The ratio between force normal and force friction that is based on surface roughness and surface area.

Equilibrium

A state when all forces acting on a system cancel each other out.

Fluid

Any substance that its molecules slide past each other.

Free Body Diagram

Simplified representation of a system and all the forces acting on it.

Friction

A reaction force to the movement of two objects in direct contact with each other.

Kinetic Friction

The reaction force of friction caused by the movement of two objects past each other.

Net Force

The sum of all forces acting on a system as represented by a free body diagram.

Newton's Second Law

Acceleration is directly proportional to the force acting on a system, and inversely proportional to the mass of the system.

Normal Force

The reaction force that is perpendicular to the plane of contact between two objects.

Pressure

The force exerted on a specific area.

Static Friction

The force of friction caused by the direct contact of two stationary objects.

Weight

The force of gravity on a mass.

Aristotle

Ancient Greek that was one of the first recorded philosophers to work on the laws of

motion.

Copernicus

15 th century mathematician that developed the heliocentric model of the solar

system.

Force

The abiltiy to accelerate a mass

Free body diagram

A simplified representation of a system and all the forces acting on it.

Galileo

16th century mathematician that proved that objects of different masses fall at the same rate, and in the absence of friction motion is conserved.

Head to Tail Method

A visual representation of a method for adding vectors.

Intertia

The ability to resist a change in the state of motion of an object that is directly proportional to the objects mass.

Issac Newton

18th century mathematician the put forward the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation.

Mass

The amount of matter in an object

Newtons first law

An object at rest will stay at rest, an object in motion will stay in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force.

Vector

A visual representation of magnitude and direction an action is occurring along.

Instantaneous Speed

speed at any given moment

Average Speed

Speed measured over a period of time

Acceleration

The rate of change of velocity due to an outside force acting on a system

Distance

The magnitude of change in the position of an object

Scalar

A value that only has magnitude

Vector

A value that has both magnitude and direction

Velocity

The rate of change and position of an object

Motion

a change in position relative to a frame of reference

Graph of Motion

A visual representation that compares motion to time

Rate of Change

A comparison of something in time

What are three ways an object can accelerate?

Speed up, Slow down, Turn

4 examples of scalar measure

Distance, time, speed, volume

4 examples of different vector measures

Velocity, acceleration, force, weight

What is the definition of a graph of motion

A visual representation that compares motion to time

What is the term that goes with something divided by time?

Rate of change

What does the slope on of a velocity vs time graph represent?

acceleration

What does the slope of a distance vs time graph represent?

Velocity

Freefall

An object falling only under the influence of gravity

Terminal Velocity

A state of constant velocity that occurs when the force of gravity and the force of air resistance balance each other out

Trajectory

The parabolic path an object follows when it is thrown.

Hang time

The amount of time an object takes to fall from the peak of a trajectory under free-fall conditions.

Acceleration due to gravity

The resulting acceleration of an object under the influence of the external force of gravity. Near the surface of Earth, this is approximately -9.81 m/s/s.

force of gravity

A universal force that has a magnitude that is directly proportional to the two masses interacting and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two objects.

Gravitational Constant

The relative strength of the force of gravity in comparison to mass and distance. It has a value of 6.6743 x 10^-11 (m^3)/(kg * s^2)

Orbit

When an object is in a perpetual state of freefall around another object.

Escape Velocity

When an object has a velocity that exceeds the required initial velocity to escape the effects of a celestial object's gravitational field.

Karman Line

An imaginary line approximately 52.1 mi above Earth's surface that is used to distinguish between atmosphere and space.