Key Concepts from Newton's Laws of Motion and Gravitation

These flashcards cover key vocabulary related to Newton's laws of motion and his principle of universal gravitation, highlighting their definitions and significance.

First Law of Motion (Principle of Inertia)

An object at rest tends to remain at rest, while an object in motion tends to continue its straight-line motion in the absence of outside forces.

Second Law of Motion

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

Third Law of Motion

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

Universal Gravitation

The principle that every body in the universe attracts every other body with a force that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Force in Newtonian physics

A source of activity that causes an object to change its state of motion, often treated as a property of a body or akin to kinetic energy.

Mass

Resistance to acceleration; also conceptualized as the integral of density over volume.

Kinematic vs. Dynamic

Kinematic refers to the mathematical description of motion, while dynamic deals with the forces that cause motion.

Inverse Square Law

A law stating that a physical quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity.