PHYSICS

Law of Motion
• Dynamics is the branch of physics in which we
study the motion of a body by taking into
consideration the cause i.e., force which produces
the motion.
• Force
Force is an external cause in the form of push or pull,
which produces or tries to produce motion in a body
at rest, or stops/tries to stop a moving body or
changes/tries to change the direction of motion of
the body.
• The inherent property, with which a body resists
any change in its state of motion is called inertia.
Heavier the body, the inertia is more and lighter the
body, lesser the inertia.
• Law of inertia states that a body has the inability to
change its state of rest or uniform motion (i.e., a
motion with constant velocity) or direction of
motion by itself.
• Newton’s Laws of Motion
Law 1. A body will remain at rest or continue to
move with uniform velocity unless an external force
is applied to it.
First law of motion is also referred to as the ‘Law of
inertia’. It defines inertia, force and inertial frame of
reference.
I here is always a need of ‘frame of reference’ to
describe and understand the motion of particle, lhc
simplest ‘frame of reference’ used are known as the
inertial frames.
A frame of referent, e is known as an inertial frame
it, within it, all accelerations of any particle are
caused by the action of ‘real forces’ on that particle.
When we talk about accelerations produced by
‘fictitious’ or ‘pseudo’ forces, the frame of reference
is a non-inertial one.
Law 2. When an external force is applied to a body
of constant mass the force produces an acceleration,
which is directly proportional to the force and
inversely proportional to the mass of the body.
Law 3. “To every action there is equal and opposite
reaction force”. When a body A exerts a force on
another body B, B exerts an equal and opposite
force on A.
• Linear Momentum
The linear momentum of a body is defined as the
product of the mass of the body and its velocity.

• Impulse
Forces acting for short duration are called impulsive
forces. Impulse is defined as the product of force
and the small time interval for which it acts. It is
given by
Impulse of a force is a vector quantity and its SI unit
is 1 Nm.
— If force of an impulse is changing with time, then
the impulse is measured by finding the area bound
by force-time graph for that force.
— Impulse of a force for a given time is equal to the
total change in momentum of the body during the
given time. Thus, we have

• Law of Conservation of Momentum

The total momentum of an isolated system of
particles is conserved.
In other words, when no external force is applied to
the system, its total momentum remains constant.

• Recoiling of a gun, flight of rockets and jet planes

are some simple applications of the law of
conservation of linear momentum.
• Concurrent Forces and Equilibrium
“A group of forces which are acting at one point are
called concurrent forces.”
Concurrent forces are said to be in equilibrium if
there is no change in the position of rest or the state
of uniform motion of the body on which these
concurrent forces are acting.
For concurrent forces to be in equilibrium, their
resultant force must be zero. In case of three
concurrent forces acting in a plane, the body will be
in equilibrium if these three forces may be
completely represented by three sides of a triangle
taken in order. If number of concurrent forces is
more than three, then these forces must be
represented by sides of a closed polygon in order for
equilibrium.

• Commonly Used Forces

(i) Weight of a body. It is the force with which earth
attracts a body towards its centre. If M is mass of
body and g is acceleration due to gravity, weight of
the body is Mg in vertically downward direction.
(ii) Normal Force. If two bodies are in contact a
contact force arises, if the surface is smooth the
direction of force is normal to the plane of contact.
We call this force as Normal force.

Example. Let us consider a book resting on the table.

It is acted upon by its weight in vertically downward
direction and is at rest. It means there is another
force acting on the block in opposite direction,
which balances its weight. This force is provided by
the table and we call it as normal force.
(iii) Tension in string. Suppose a block is hanging
from a string. Weight of the block is acting vertically
downward but it is not moving, hence its weight is
balanced by a force due to string. This force is called
‘Tension in string’. Tension is a force in a stretched
string. Its direction is taken along the string and
away from the body under consideration.
• Simple Pulley
Consider two bodies of masses m1 and m2 tied at the
ends of an in extensible string, which passes over a
light and friction less pulley. Let m1 > m2. The heavier
body will move downwards and the lighter will move
upwards. Let a be the common acceleration of the
system of two bodies, which is given by

• Apparent Weight and Actual Weight

— ‘Apparent weight’ of a body is equal to its ‘actual
weight’ if the body is either in a state of rest or in a
state of uniform motion.
— Apparent weight of a body for vertically upward
accelerated motion is given as
Apparent weight =Actual weight + Ma = M (g + a)
— Apparent weight of a body for vertically
downward accelerated motion is given as
Apparent weight = Actual weight Ma = M (g – a).
• Friction
The opposition to any relative motion between two
surfaces in contact is referred to as friction. It arises
because of the ‘inter meshing’ of the surface
irregularities of the two surfaces in contact.
• Static and Dynamic (Kinetic) Friction
The frictional forces between two surfaces in contact
(i) before and (ii) after a relative motion between
them has started, are referred to as static and
dynamic friction respectively. Static friction is always
a little more than dynamic friction.
The magnitude of kinetic frictional force is also
proportional to normal force.
• Limiting Frictional Force
This frictional force acts when body is about to
move. This is the maximum frictional force that can
exist at the contact surface. We calculate its value
using laws of friction.
Laws of Friction:
(i) The magnitude of limiting frictional force is
proportional to the normal force at the contact
surface.

(ii) The magnitude of limiting frictional force is

independent of area of contact between the
surfaces.
• Coefficient of Friction
The coefficient of friction (μ) between two surfaces
is the ratio of their limiting frictional force to the
normal force between them, i.e.,
• Angle of Friction
It is the angle which the resultant of the force of
limiting friction F and the normal reaction R makes
with the direction of the normal reaction. If θ is the
angle of friction, we have

• Angle of Repose
Angle of repose (α) is the angle of an inclined plane
with the horizontal at which a body placed over it
just begins to slide down without any acceleration.
Angle of repose is given by α = tan-1 (μ)

• Motion on a Rough Inclined Plane

Suppose a motion up the plane takes place under
the action of pull P acting parallel to the plane.
• Centripetal Force
Centripetal force is the force required to move a
body uniformly in a circle. This force acts along the
radius and towards the centre of the circle. It is given
by

where, v is the linear velocity, r is the radius of

circular path and ω is the angular velocity of the
body.
• Centrifugal Force
Centrifugal force is a force that arises when a body is
moving actually along a circular path, by virtue of
tendency of the body to regain its natural straight
line path.
The magnitude of centrifugal force is same as that of
centripetal force.
• Motion in a Vertical Circle
The motion of a particle in a horizontal circle is
different from the motion in vertical circle. In
horizontal circle, the motion is not effected by the
acceleration due to gravity (g) whereas in the motion
of vertical circle, the motion is not effected by the
acceleration due to gravity (g) whereas in the motion
of vertical circle, the value of ‘g’ plays an important
role, the motion in this case does not remain
uniform. When the particle move up from its lowest
position P, its speed continuously decreases till it
reaches the highest point of its circular path. This is
due to the work done against the force of gravity.
When the particle moves down the circle, its speed
would keep on increasing.

Let us consider a particle moving in a circular vertical

path of radius V and centre o tide with a string. L be
the instantaneous position of the particle such that

Here the following forces act on the particle of mass

‘m’.
(i) Its weight = mg (verticaly downwards).
(ii) The tension in the string T along LO.
We can take the horizontal direction at the lowest
point ‘p’ as the position of zero gravitational
potential energy. Now as per the principle of
conservation of energy,
From this relation, we can calculate the tension in
the string at the lowest point P, mid-way point and at
the highest position of the moving particle.
Case (i) : At the lowest point P, θ = 0°
When the particle completes its motion along the
vertical circle, it is referred to as “Looping the Loop”
for this the minimum speed at the lowest position
must be √5gr
• IMPORTANT TABLES