Raymundo-Honors Physics Ch. 3-4 vocab.

• Acceleration

The rate at which an object's velocity changes over time.

• Velocity-Time Graph

A graph that plots velocity on the vertical axis (y-axis) and time on the horizontal axis (x-axis); its slope represents the object's acceleration.

• Average Acceleration

The change in an object's velocity during a measurable time interval divided by that specific time interval.

• Instantaneous Acceleration

The change in an object's velocity at a single, specific instant in time.

• Free Fall

The motion of an object when air resistance is negligible and the only force acting on it is gravity.

• Acceleration Due to Gravity

The constant acceleration of an object in free fall, resulting from Earth's gravity (denoted as g, which is approximately 9.80 m/s²).

• Force

A push or a pull exerted on an object.

• Contact Force

A force that acts on an object only by touching it (e.g., friction, pushing a box).

• Field Force

A force exerted without contact, acting through an environmental field (e.g., gravity, magnetism).

• Net Force

The vector sum of all the individual forces acting concurrently on an object.

• Free-Body Diagram

A physical model or drawing that uses symbols to represent all the forces acting on a system.

• Tension

The specific contact force exerted by a string, rope, or cable when pulled taut.

• Normal Force

The perpendicular contact force exerted by a surface on another object.

• Newton's First Law

States that an object at rest will remain at rest, and a moving object will continue moving at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by a net external force (also known as the Law of Inertia).

• Inertia

The inherent tendency of an object to resist any change in its current state of motion.

• Equilibrium

The condition in which the net force acting on an object is zero; the object is either completely at rest or moving at a constant velocity.

• Newton's Second Law

States that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass ((F_{\text{net}} = ma)).

• Interaction Pair

A set of two forces that are equal in magnitude, opposite in direction, and act on different objects (often referred to as action-reaction pairs in Newton's Third Law).