Force and Motion

These flashcards cover essential vocabulary and concepts related to force and motion, including Newton's laws, friction, buoyancy, and momentum.

Force

A vector quantity capable of producing motion or a change in motion.

Net Force

The vector sum of all forces acting on an object; determines the object's acceleration.

Balanced Forces

Equal forces acting in opposite directions resulting in no motion.

Unbalanced Forces

Forces that cause an object to accelerate in the direction of the net force.

Newton’s First Law of Motion

An object will remain at rest or in uniform motion unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force.

Inertia

The natural tendency of an object to remain in its state of motion.

Mass

The amount of matter present in an object.

Weight

The force due to gravity acting on an object, calculated as mass times acceleration due to gravity.

Acceleration

The rate of change of velocity of an object.

Friction

Resistance to motion that occurs whenever two materials are in contact.

Static Friction

The frictional force that prevents relative motion between surfaces.

Kinetic Friction

The frictional force that occurs when there is relative motion between surfaces.

Newton’s Second Law of Motion

Acceleration is directly proportional to the net force acting on an object and inversely proportional to its mass (F = ma).

Newton’s Third Law of Motion

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Law of Universal Gravitation

Every particle in the universe attracts every other particle with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Buoyant Force

The upward force experienced by an object when immersed in a fluid.

Linear Momentum

The product of an object's mass and its velocity (p = mv).

Law of Conservation of Linear Momentum

The total linear momentum of an isolated system remains constant if there are no external forces.

Torque

A twisting effect caused by one or more forces.

Angular Momentum

The quantity of rotation of an object, calculated as the product of its moment of inertia and its angular velocity.

Conservation of Angular Momentum

Angular momentum remains constant if there is no external unbalanced torque acting on it.