Forces Word List Year 7 MHS

Acceleration

The rate at which velocity changes over time.

Buoyancy

The tendency of an object to rise upward or float in a fluid.

Electrostatic

Relating to electricity or fields that do not move in a current but are instead attracted to the surface of an object, as opposed to electric currents.

Force

A push or pull between objects, which may cause one or both objects to change speed, and/or direction of their motion, and/or their shape.

Gravitational

The force of attraction that objects with mass exert on each other.

Law

A statement that describes a relationship or phenomena that does not change under the same conditions.

Law of conservation of energy

States that energy cannot be created or destroyed.

Kinetic energy (KE)

The energy that an object possesses by virtue of its motion; the energy an object gains by being in motion.

Potential energy

The energy that an object possesses due to its position in a force field or that is stored in a system by virtue of the configuration and interaction between bodies in that system, eg elastic potential energy.

Mass

The amount of matter in an object.

Matter

A physical substance; anything that has mass and occupies space.

Orbit

Moving in a curved path around a body such as the Earth, an atom or the Sun.

Theory

A formal explanation, based on evidence and reviewed by the scientific community. Predictions can be tested by comparing actual observations with the theory.

Weight

The measure of the force of gravity acting on a body with a given mass. An object can be weightless without its mass being zero. The term ‘weight’ is used as a synonym for mass when the concept of gravitational force has not been introduced.

Satellite

a celestial body (like a moon) or artificial object that orbits a planet

Field

an area in which a force is exerted

Newton

the unit for force

Friction

a contact force that opposes motion and produces heat

Contact force

a force required to be in direct contact with an object to cause a push, pull or twist

Non-contact force

a force applied to an object by another body that is not in direct contact with it

Magnet

produces a magnetic field which attracts metallic objects composed of iron, cobalt or nickel

Mlectromagnet

a type of magnet created by electricity