CHEMISTRY Chapter 3: Forces and Energy

3.1 Gravity, Weight and Mass

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Gravity
● The force that pulls masses towards one another.
● Objects with large mass (Earth etc.) cause strong forces of gravity
● The force of gravity caused by an object acts towards the centre of the object.
● When you drop an object, the object falls in a line that points towards Earth's centre.

Weight
● Weight is the force of gravity on an object.
● It’s difficult to lift a heavy object because gravity is pulling it towards the centre of the
Earth. By lifting the object, you’re pulling it against gravity.
● Measured in newtons (N).
● Changes when the strength of gravity changes.

Mass
● Mass is the quantity of matter in an object.
● Measured in kilograms (kg).
● Never changes.

On Earth, the force of gravity is 10 N on every 1 kg of mass. (W=m×10)

● The Contact Force

The contact force acts up from any surface to support an object.

● Always equal to the weight of the object when the surface is not moving.

● If the weight is larger than the contact force, the surface will break and the object will
sink into the surface.

The strength of gravity is not 10N/kg in all parts of the Solar System. Therefore, the weight of an
object changes when the strength of gravity changes. The mass of an object does not change.

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● Example question:
1. Calculate the weight of an adult who has a mass of 75kg.
weight=mass×10__________________________________________________________________

=75kg×10N/kg_____________________________________________________________

=750 N_____________________________________________________________________

● Other Planets’ Strength of Gravity

Mercury=3.7N/kg

Venus= 8.9 N/kg

Earth= 10 N/kg

Mars= 1.6 N/kg

Jupiter= 25 N/kg

Saturn= 10 N/kg

Uranus= 8.7 N/kg

Neptune= 11 N/kg
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3.2 Formation of the Solar System

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The Solar System

● All planets in the Solar System follow a path (orbit) around the Sun in the same
direction.
● The Sun and all the orbiting planets and their moon(s) make up the solar system.
● The Sun and all the planets (except Venus and Uranus) spin on their axes (singular: axis)
in the same direction.
● Most of the moons of the planets orbit their planets in the same direction as the planets
rotate around the sun.
● The direction of spin of the Sun and the planets (except Venus and Uranus) is the same
as the direction in which the planets orbit the sun.
● All the planets orbit the Sun in the same plane. Objects that are in the same plane could
all be placed on the same flat surface. This means the Solar System looks flat.

Order of the planets= My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nature.

The Birth of Stars

● Stars are being formed from clouds of dust and gas (nebula).
● All the particles of dust and gas have their own weak gravity (pull on each other and
stick together).
● As their mass increases, so does the strength of their gravity. (attracts more dust and gas
with a greater force)
● If the ball made of particles of dust and gas gets big enough, it will get hot enough to
become a star. Otherwise, it’ll become a planet.

Just like snowballs, the particles of dust and gas form a small ball. The ball slowly gets bigger
because of gravity. It takes millions of years to form a star or planet.

1. Matter and particles exist in space.

2. In hotter areas, gravity becomes stronger, attracting matter and particles together.
3. Gravity increases, matter and particles clump together faster and faster.
4. Atoms begin banging into each other violently, raising the temperature.
5. Nuclear fusion occurs and the matter is turned into pure energy- a star.
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3.3 Movement in space

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The Sun’s Gravity

● Objects with more mass have more gravity.
● The mass of the Sun is 330 000 times larger than the mass of Earth.
● The strength of the Sun’s gravity is 27 times stronger than the Earth (270N/KG).
● The Sun’s gravity holds all planets in their orbits. It gets weaker as the distance from the
Sun increases.

Neptune is 30 times further from the Sun than Earth is. The mass of Neptune is about 17
times the mass of Earth, so the Sun’s gravity is still strong enough to hold Neptune in orbit
despite it getting weaker.

The orbit of the planets are almost circular. To keep an object moving in a circle, there needs
to be a force causing it to turn (force of gravity from the Sun) The force of gravity from the
Sun that acts on a planet always acts towards the Sun. If the force didn’t act, the planet
would travel off in a straight line into space.

For example, imagine you have a ball on a string, and you are spinning it around in a circle
above your head. The string keeps pulling the ball towards you so it doesn't fly away. The
Sun's gravity is like that string. It pulls the planets towards the Sun, keeping them moving in
a circle around it. If the Sun's gravity wasn't there, the planets would just zoom off in a
straight line into space, just like if you let go of the string, the ball would fly away.

Speed in Space
● In space, where there is a vacuum and no air resistance, the Juno could reach a speed of
266 000 km/h as it passed Jupiter. However, the fastest object humans have ever made
was actually the Parker Solar Probe, travelling 700 000 km/h as it orbits the Sun. This
speed is achieved due to the spacecraft's close proximity to the Sun, utilising its gravity
to accelerate to such high velocities.
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3.4 Tides
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What are tides?

● Tides are the periodic rise and fall of sea levels (between the Earth, Moon and Sun) at a
particular place.
● Tides are caused by the gravitational force of the moon.
● The difference in depth of water between high and low tides is called tidal range.
● When sea levels rise to its greatest height, its called a high tide; when sea levels drop to
its lowest point, its called a low tide.
● Tides also cause the land to change in height through the day. (earth tide)
● The time between a high and low tide is 6 hours, while high tides (along with low tides)
are 12 hours apart.

Earth tides, also known as terrestrial tides, are the small but measurable deformations of the
Earth's crust caused by the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun. Similar to
ocean tides, these forces create periodic bulges in the Earth's solid surface. The tidal range
due to earth tides is about 30 cm.

What causes tides?

The Moon stays in orbit around the Earth because
of the force of gravity from the Earth, but the Moon
also has gravity, and this gravity pulls on the Earth.
As the oceans are made from water, the gravity
from the Moon can pull the water more easily than
the land. The pull from the Moon’s gravity is called
a tidal force. The Earth is viewed from above the
North Pole in this picture. The side closer to the Moon will always have high tides. You
can see from the picture that the side furthest away also has a high tide because of
centrifugal force (the force that pushes an object away from the centre of rotation).

Earth has two big splashes of water: one where the Moon pulls hard and one on the other
side where Earth is spinning away from the Moon. This spinning away is like a gentle push
that makes the water on that side rise up too.
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The sun also produces a tidal force on Earth, but its weaker as the Sun is further away
than the Moon. When the Sun and the Moon are in line with Earth, this produces a
larger tidal force.

Effect of Tides
Some harbours can only be used at certain times due to water depth. Harbours are where
boats and ships load and unload. Coastal areas, which are close to oceans, can flood
during high tides and strong winds, and dangerous tides can affect small boats. Tides
also impact food chains: birds eat shellfish at low tide, and some fish move to find food
based on tides. Earth tides might help predict volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Additionally, the movement of tidal water can be harnessed to generate electricity.
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3.5 Energy
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What is energy?
Energy is something that must be changed or transferred in order to do something. An
object may have energy because it is moving or because of its position. There are many
different ways that energy can be stored or transferred. About 2000 J of energy is used to
walk up the stairs between two floors in a building, 200 J for every metre you run, and
400 000 J to bring 1 litre of cold water to its boiling point.

Energy stores and transfers

Energy Description Energy store or energy transfer

kinetic energy stored due to movement of an object store

chemical energy stored in food, batteries, chemical store

fuels such as wood, oil and coal

thermal heat energy stored in hot objects and store or transfer

transferred to colder objects

elastic potential energy stored when things are stretched or store

squeezed to change their shape

gravitational energy stored when an object is lifted away store

potential from a source of gravity

electrical the flow of current in a circuit transfers transfer

electrical energy

sound energy transferred from vibrating objects transfer

light visible energy from luminous objects transfer

(objects that give out their own light)
that you can see
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Long-Term Energy Storage:

● Chemical energy in uncooked rice, coal, and batteries can be stored for a long time.
● Gravitational potential energy, such as water in a pumped tank, is also easy to store.

Short-Term Energy Storage:

● Thermal energy (heat) is temporary; hot objects cool down and lose thermal energy.
● Kinetic energy is also short-lived; a moving tennis ball eventually stops, losing its
kinetic energy.

Using energy
All our daily activities require energy. To lead an active life, you must have energy stored
in your body. We obtain energy from the food we eat (chemical energy).

Electricity supplies
There are many things we can only do with the help of machines. Planes, cars and buses
need an energy store. They get their energy from the fuel in their tanks.

Electricity brings energy

Electricity is a good way of transferring energy from place to place. It's usually produced
in large power stations. The electrical energy is then carried to us along wires.

Electrical energy can be used to move charged particles through a wire from power
plants to our home. We use it to charge and run electrical devices.

The movement of a charged particle through a wire is called a current, or more

commonly, electricity.

To sum up, energy can be transformed from one type to another or stored, but it can never be
created or destroyed.
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3.6 Changes in energy

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How does energy change?

When energy is being transferred, it can change from one form to another. Stored energy
is not actively doing any work until it is transferred.

Energy Storage and Transformation:

● Energy must be stored before it can be changed or transferred.

● Wood stores chemical energy; burning it converts this to thermal energy.
● Thermal energy heats the cooking pot and food.
● Climbing stairs changes chemical energy from food into kinetic energy for movement.
● Movement converts kinetic energy into gravitational potential energy.

Energy changes:

● Power stations burn natural gas, transforming chemical energy into thermal energy.
● Thermal energy drives generators, converting it to kinetic energy.
● Kinetic energy is further converted into electrical energy.
● Electrical energy is distributed to homes and buildings.
● Energy changes can have dangerous effects, like in typhoons and earthquakes.
● Processes like burning represent energy transformations.

In all of these examples, there is a process or event that changes or transfers the energy. You
can represent the processes as arrows and draw diagrams to show changes in energy.
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3.7 Where does energy go?

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Useful and wasted energy

Every time you use energy to make something happen, energy is transferred or changed.
Some of the energy transferred or changed is useful, but some of it is wasted.

Motorcycles:

● Fuel’s chemical energy is converted to kinetic energy to move the motorcycle and rider.
● Additional energy from the fuel is converted to thermal and sound energy.
● Only about 25% of the fuel's chemical energy is used for movement.
● The remaining 75% is wasted as dissipated energy (thermal and sound).
● Wasted energy cannot be recovered or stored.

Lamps:

Lamp Comparison:

● Both lamps convert electrical energy to light energy.

Lamp A:

● Converts about 15% of electrical energy into light.

● 85% of electrical energy is wasted as thermal energy.

Lamp B:

● Converts about 50% of electrical energy into light.

● 50% of electrical energy is wasted as thermal energy.

Dissipation of energy

● Every time energy is changed or transferred, some thermal energy is wasted.

● Wasted thermal energy is dissipated.
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Conservation of energy
Torches use batteries as their energy supply. Their batteries will eventually run out if you use it.

If we could work out how much energy the battery stored and how much light and heat energy
came from the bulb, we would find that the totals were the same. This proves that energy
cannot be destroyed. It just gets changed from one form to another. This idea is what we call
the “conservation of energy”.

The idea of energy

● Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be changed from one form to another.
● In any change, there is the same amount of energy after the change as there was before
the change.

Energy never disappears

If you do a lot of hard work, you use up some of the energy stored in your body.

● If you leave a torch on for a long time, you use up the energy stored in the battery.
● However, this doesn’t mean that the energy has disappeared. It has gone from the store,
but it has been changed into other forms.
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Questions of note
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Exercise 3.1 A, question 3

3a) Calculate the weight of an adult who has a mass of 75kg.

weight=mass×10__________________________________________________________________

=75kg×10N/kg_____________________________________________________________

=750 N_____________________________________________________________________

*remember the format

Exercise 3.1 B, question 1

Name Top pan balance Measuring Force meter Ruler
cylinder
Used to find mass ✔
Used to find ✔
weight

Exercise 3.1 B, question 3a

3a) Calculate the mass of a box that has a weight of 250 N.

mass=weight/10_______________________________________________________ ___________

=250/10 (write in fraction format: ²⁵⁰⁄₁₀) _ ______________________________

=25kg _______________________________________________________________ _____

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Exercise 3.1 B, question 3d

3d) Explain how the mass of an object on Mars would compare with the mass of
the same object on Earth.

The mass of an object on Mars would be constant; mass is the quantity of matter in_
an object; mass is not affected by the strength of gravity.______________________________

Exercise 3.3 C, question 1

a) Explain why powerful engines are needed to go from Earth into space.

To overcome gravity and air resistance._________________________________________________

1b) Describe how the Space Shuttle was able to slow down so much without
engines.

Air resistance is a force that slows things down.________________________________________