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I.G.C.S.E Physics

Force
Force is a vector quantity. Unit of force is newton (N). Force acting on a body can change its
shape, size or its motion.
 Mass and Weight:
Mass is the property of body to resist any change in its motion. That is the reason mass of an
object according to classical physics is same everywhere.
While weight is the force of gravity acting on mass. Hence it differs from place to place
depending on the force of gravity at that place. Weight of an object can be found using the
equation W= mg, where m is mass of the body and g is acceleration due to gravity.
 Newton’s laws of motion:
1. Newton’s first law of motion:
Newton’s first law of motion states that a body at rest will remain at rest and a body in motion
will continue to move with a constant velocity until and unless acted upon by an external
unbalanced force.
(Basically only when a net force acts on a body it motion will change otherwise it continues to
do what it was doing for eternity!)
 Balanced and unbalanced forces:
If Newton’s first law is true why does a ball that you roll on the ground stop after sometime or a
cycle peddled once does not keep going forever?
The answer to this is a force called friction which acts on a body that is in contact with another
body and as a result produce heat (and sound). The force of friction acts on the motion of object
that we see in our day to day life. It always is acting in the opposite direction of the motion and
hence results into slowing down and eventually stopping of the moving body. (Yes, in space
where there is vacuum no friction exist and an object thrown can actually go on for eternity
without stopping!)
o Balanced forces: When two forces are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction they
cancel out each other and are hence called balanced forces.
o Net force or Resultant force: The sum of all the forces acting on a body is known as resultant
or net force
E.g. consider if there are three force 4N, 3N and 6N acting on a body from left and two forces 4
N and 5N acting from right on the body the resultant force will be the sum of all the forces.
Resultant force= 4N+3N+6N -4N-5N= 4N
(Remember Force is a vector quantity so it has both magnitude and direction. Directions are
mathematically represented as signs. If left direction is positive then right will be opposite of it
i.e. negative hence 4N and 5N have negative sign in the above example.)
Hence the resultant force is 4N towards left (as the sign is positive). The forces are unbalance
here as the resultant force is not zero.
o Motion of a body falling near the surface of the earth:
Near the surface of the earth we consider that the gravitational field is the same throughout.
And the value of acceleration it produces is approximately 10 m/𝑠 2 . It means that an object
falling near the surface of the earth will have an acceleration of 10 m/𝑠 2 which means its
velocity increases by 10 m/s every second.
o Air resistance: Air resistance is a kind of friction force. It is produces due to the rubbing of air
particle with a moving body. The faster the body moves more the air resistance increases.
 Consider a sky diver jumping of an aeroplane, at the very moment he jumps an acceleration of
approximately 10 m/𝑠 2 would act on him.
 But as he starts moving air resistance would come into play and oppose the motion of the
body resulting in the reduction of acceleration.
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 The above process keeps going until the force of air resistance become equal to the force of
gravity acting on the body cancelling each other.
 Now there is no net force acting on the body and hence it continue to move with a constant
speed.
 This constant speed is known as terminal velocity.
 Now if the sky diver opens up his parachute due to increase in surface area the air resistance
would increase and there would be resultant force in the upwards direction this will start to
reduce the velocity of the body.
 The above process continues until a new terminal velocity is reached.
Below is a speed time graph representing this.
25

20

15
Speed/m/s

10
free fall ithrough air resistance

0
0 5 10 15 20
-5
Time/s

2. Newton’s second law of motion:

When a resultant force acts on a body it causes the body to accelerate. Newton’s second law
states that for a given mass acceleration produced is directly proportional to the force applied.
F= m × 𝑎
Where F is the force acting on the body, m is the mass of the body and ‘a’ is the acceleration the
body experiences.
3. Momentum:
Momentum is the product of mass with velocity.
P=m×𝑣
Where P is the momentum, m is the mass of the body and v is the velocity of the body.
 Law of conservation of momentum: For a closed system, the total momentum before an event
is equal to the total momentum after the event.
The total momentum of the system is always the same.
E.g. consider a truck of mass 1000 kg moving with the velocity 50 m/s collides with a stationary
car having mass 300 kg. After the collision the truck is moving with a velocity of 20 m/s find
the velocity of the car.
Solution: we use the law of conservation of momentum to solve this question.
Total momentum before collision = total momentum after collision
(𝑚𝑡 × 𝑢𝑡 ) + (𝑚𝑐 × 𝑢𝑐 ) = (𝑚𝑡 × 𝑣𝑡 ) + (𝑚𝑐 × 𝑣𝑐 )
(1000 × 50) + (300 × 0) = (1000 × 20) + (300 × 𝑣𝑐 )
50000 + 0 = 20000 + 300𝑣𝑐
(50000−20000)
𝑣𝑐 = 300
= 100 m/s

 Impulse (j): Impulse is the change in momentum

j= mv - mu
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 Newton’s second law and momentum: Newton’s second is also stated as ‘Force is equal to rate
of change of momentum’.
𝑚𝑣−𝑚𝑢
F= 𝑡 ,
𝐹𝑡 = 𝑚𝑣 − 𝑚𝑢
But mv-mu is impulse
So Ft = j

4. Newton’s third law of motion:

Every action has a reaction which is equal in magnitude but opposite in direction.

 Vector scale drawing:

If two or more vectors are acting on a point and all this vectors are parallel to each other (i.e.
angle between them is either 0 or 180) we just add them all up to find the resultant. But what if
the vectors are not parallel but at an angle.
In such a case we draw a vector scale diagram to find the resultant vector.
O

Consider two force 200 N and 500 N acting on a point O at an angle say 70 degree to each other.
In order to find the resultant of these forces you need to carry out the following steps.
 Chose a suitable scale. In this example lets take 1cm = 100 newton.
 Draw one of the vectors according to the scale. In our case we shall first draw the 500 N force
which will be 5 cm according to scale.

 Draw the other vector according to the scale at the angle it is with the first vector. In or case it
is 70 degree.
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 Complete the parallelogram by drawing similar vectors parallel to each other

 The length of the diagonal multiplied by the scale will give you the magnitude of the resultant
vector, and the angle between the diagonal and any of the sides give you the direction of the
vector.

 Circular motion and centripetal force:

For an object to move in a circular path (or even a curved path) it is necessary to change the
direction of the object at every moment in time. In order to change the direction of a body you
require a force. This force is known as centripetal force.
Centripetal force helps change the direction of the body and maintain its curve path. The
centripetal force is always acting towards the centre of the circle.