Motion and Forces Vocabulary

Flashcards on Motion and Forces based on lecture notes.

Newton's First Law (N1)

The tendency of an object to remain at rest or in motion with a constant velocity unless acted upon by a force.

Force

A push or pull exerted on an object.

Agent

Something that exerts a force.

Contact Forces

Forces that act on an object by touching it.

Long-Range Forces

Forces that act on an object without physical contact.

Net Force

The vector sum of all forces acting on an object.

Resultant Force

Another term for net force.

Weight

The gravitational pull of the Earth on an object.

Spring Force

Force exerted by a spring when it is deflected.

Tension Force

Contact force exerted by a string or rope.

Normal Force

Force exerted by a surface against an object pressing on it.

Friction

Force exerted by a surface, parallel to the surface.

Kinetic Friction

Friction that opposes motion when an object slides across a surface.

Static Friction

Friction that keeps an object stuck on a surface, preventing motion.

Drag

Resistive force of a fluid on a moving object.

Thrust

Force that occurs when an engine expels gas molecules.

Free-Body Diagram

A diagram representing an object as a particle and showing all forces acting on it.

Interaction

Mutual influence of two objects on each other.

Action/Reaction Pair

A pair of forces between two interacting objects.

What do Forces Do?

The constant acceleration is directly proportional to the force

Finding the Mass of an Unknown Block

What the acceleration of the block is measured to be when a rubber band is stretched to pull on a 1.0 kg block with a constant force

Newton

Force that will cause an object of mass 1 kg to accelerate at 1 m/s^2

Newton's Second Law

An object subjected to forces will undergo an acceleration.

Force Vectors

All three of the tails of the vectors are placed on.

Vertically Downward

Weight vector always points in this direction, no matter how the object is moving

Tension

The direction of the tension force is always in the direction of the string

Parallel

The frictional force is always this to the surface

Drag

Points opposite the direction of motion

Identifying Forces

You must identify all the forces that ACT on the object

Newton’s Third Law

Every force occurs as one member of an action/reaction pair of forces.