Newton's Laws of Motion Vocabulary

Flashcards covering vocabulary terms related to Newton's three laws of motion, types of forces, and key physical properties like mass and acceleration.

Force

A push or pull which either changes or tends to change the state of rest or of uniform motion of a body.

Contact Forces

Forces that exist when an object from the external world touches a system and exerts a force on it.

Non-contact Forces (Field Forces)

Forces that affect movement without being in physical contact, such as gravitational, magnetic, electric, and nuclear forces.

Newton's First Law of Motion

The law stating that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Inertia

The resistance of an object to a change in its velocity or the tendency of an object to resist changes in its state of motion.

Mass

A measurement of how difficult it is to change an object's velocity; mass is a measurement of an object's inertia, typically measured in $kg$.

Unbalanced Force

Forces that are not equal and opposite, resulting in a change in the motion of the object.

Balanced Forces

Forces that are equal and opposite, resulting in a net force of $0$ and no change in motion or acceleration.

Newton's Second Law of Motion

The law stating that force equals mass times acceleration, represented by the formula $F = ma$.

Acceleration

A measurement of how quickly an object is changing speed, often measured in $m/s^2$.

Net Force ($F_{net}$)

The sum total and direction of all forces acting on an object, which always causes acceleration.

Newton ($N$)

The unit of force, equivalent to $1$ kilogram multiplied by $1$ meter per second squared ($kg \times m/s^2$).

Weight

The force of gravity on an object; calculated as mass multiplied by acceleration due to gravity.

Newton's Third Law of Motion

The law stating that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Action and Reaction Forces

A pair of forces in an interaction that are equal in strength, opposite in direction, and occur simultaneously.

Isaac Newton

An English mathematician and physicist (born $25.12.1642$, died $20.03.1726$) who proved that the same laws apply to the motion of objects on Earth and celestial bodies.