General Physics II: Forces and Electrostatics

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamental types of forces, Newton's Laws of Motion, and the principles of electrostatics as presented in PHY 102.

Force

A push or pull acting upon an object resulting from its interaction with another object which can change an object’s speed, direction, or shape.

Newton (N)

The SI unit of force, defined as the force required to accelerate a mass of $1\,kg$ by $1\,m/s^2$ in the direction of the applied force.

Contact Forces

Forces that are applied to other objects only through physical touching, representing the result of physical contact between two objects.

Applied Force ($F_{A}$)

A contact force exerted when a person or object pushes or pulls another object through direct physical contact.

Normal Force ($F_{N}$)

The force a surface exerts on an object in contact with it, acting perpendicular to the surface to support the object and prevent it from passing through.

Frictional Force ($F_{f}$)

A contact force that opposes the motion of an object moving over a surface, acting parallel to the surface in the opposite direction of motion.

Non-Contact Forces

Forces that act between objects without any physical contact, operating through fields and acting over a distance.

Gravitational Force

A non-contact force that exists between any two objects that possess mass; it is always an attractive force pulling bodies toward each other.

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation

States that the gravitational force between two masses is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Magnetic Force

A non-contact force exerted by a magnet on any other magnetic substance.

Electrostatic Force

The force of attraction or repulsion between electrically charged particles, which follows Coulomb’s law.

Newton's First Law (Inertia)

An object at rest stays at rest, or an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Newton's Second Law

States that acceleration is directly proportional to the net force and inversely proportional to mass, expressed as $F = ma$.

Newton's Third Law (Action-Reaction)

States that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, represented by the formula $F_{AB} = -F_{BA}$.

Electrostatics

The branch of physics that deals with electric charges at rest and the forces between them.

Electric Charge

A fundamental property of matter responsible for electrical attraction or repulsion, with the SI unit being the coulomb ($C$).

Charging by Friction

The process where two neutral insulating materials become electrically charged when rubbed together as electrons transfer from the material with lower electron affinity to the one with higher affinity.

Charging by Induction

The process of charging a neutral conductor without direct contact with a charged object by redistributing charges within the conductor when a charged body is brought close.

Charging by Conduction

The transfer of electric charge between two conductors through direct physical contact, resulting in both objects sharing the same type of charge.