General Physics 1: Forces and Motion

Vocabulary practice cards covering fundamental concepts of force, Newton's laws, friction, and aircraft mechanics based on the General Physics 1 questionnaire.

Force

Commonly described as a "push" or a "pull".

Newton ($N$)

The SI unit of force.

Normal Force

A support force that acts perpendicular to a surface; in a Free-Body Diagram, this vector points perpendicular away from the contact surface.

Non-Contact Force

A force that acts across space without physical contact.

Inertia

The property describing the natural resistance of matter to change its velocity state.

Inertial Reference Frame (IRF)

The non-accelerating frame of reference required for Newton's 1st Law to strictly hold true.

Effect (of Force)

According to Newton's 2nd Law, force is the cause while acceleration is the resulting effect.

Mass

A physical property that is constant everywhere in the universe.

Weight

A physical property that varies with local gravitational acceleration ($g$).

Republic Act No. 8750

The Philippine law known as the Seat Belts Use Act of 1999, which requires drivers and front-seat passengers to wear seat belts.

Centripetal Force

The net force that keeps an object moving in a curved path pointing toward the center.

Fictitious force

The classification assigned to "centrifugal force".

Static Friction

The friction force that prevents the initial sliding of stationary objects.

Kinetic Friction

The friction force that opposes ongoing motion between sliding surfaces.

Threshold Angle

The minimum angle of inclination that causes sliding to begin on a ramp.

Thrust

The primary aircraft force providing forward propulsion from the engine.

Drag

The primary aircraft force providing retarding backward fluid resistance.

Tensile Forces

Types of forces directed away from each other that stretch objects.

Lever

A simple machine consisting of a rigid bar rotating around a fulcrum to multiply input force.