page background

It's The Law!

Newton's 3 Laws of Motion By: Nadia Cowan

It's The Law!Newton's 3 Laws of Motion By: Nadia Cowan

Newton's 1st Law

Newton's First Law of Motion is about Inertia. The law claims that any object at rest will stay at rest and any object at motion will stay in motion, going the same direction and speed unless acted on by an unbalanced force. Inertia causes objects to keep doing what they're doing unless the forces acting upon the object become unbalanced. Since inertia is an object's tendency to resist changes in motion, the greater the mass of an object, the greater amount of inertia it will have.

The Inertia In Our Everything

Egg Drop Demo (Newton's 1st Law)

What Happened:

In the video, the egg dropped straight into the glass because the only the tin pan and toilet paper holder were acted upon by the hands. Since the egg was never touched, it didn't break and fell straight into the water. When the egg broke, it was because there was nothing to fall into because the girl in the video accidentally knocked the glass out of the way, along with the tin and the toilet paper holder. Newton's Law was still in place though and only the items that had unbalanced forces were ever affected.
Newton's First Law of Motion

Elaboration:

This video showed and talked about the part of Newton's 1st Law of Motion where it says that an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Spock mentioned that the bus will stay stopped forever until a force, such as the engine unbalances the forces and causes the bus to move again.
zoom_out_map

Seat Belts

Seat belts were created because of the law of Inertia. When vehicles stop, objects and passengers in it will continue to move forward, and eventually fly out of the car if they are not stopped. Seat belts are unbalanced forces that stop passengers when vehicles stop. Wearing a seat belt has prevented many deaths across the world.
zoom_out_map

Nutella

When Nutella is on top of a table and all forces around it are balanced, it will stay there. The Nutella will never move unless at least one force becomes unbalanced.
zoom_out_map

Bicycles

Bicycles are fun to ride and a great way to get from one place to another. But, bikes can also be very dangerous, especially on hills. When going downhill, the bike wants to keep going, which is good until it's time to stop. If bikes didn't have breaks, the amount of bike crashes and broken legs would increase. This is because the bicycle would not be able stop unless it crashed or the rider stuck his/her leg out and dragged it across the ground which is very unsafe. Bicycles have brakes that act as an unbalanced force on the wheels to slow down the bicycle. Triggering the brakes on bikes is safer and easier than the previous ideas.

Newton's 2nd Law

Newton's Second Law of Motion is about Acceleration. The law claims that the acceleration of an object by a force is inversely proportional to the mass of the object and directly proportional to the force applied. In other words, Force is equal to Mass times Acceleration (F=MA). Newton's second law claims that the acceleration of an object depends on the mass of the object and the force at which it is pushed or pulled. The lighter the mass of an object, the more acceleration. As mass increases in an object, acceleration decreases. When there is less force applied to an object, there is also less acceleration. As the force applied to an object increases, so does the acceleration. Since acceleration is the rate of change in the motion of an object, acceleration is measured in meters per second squared.

Wait, What Exactly is Acceleration?

Acceleration is any change in an object's motion.


This includes

  • Starting
  • Stopping
  • Speeding Up
  • Slowing Down
  • Turning

Newton's 2nd Law of Motion

Elaboration:

This video showed examples of Newton's 2nd Law of Motion. It used examples of kicking a soccer ball, playing a carnival game, and swinging with two people of different masses. The video further elaborates on the formula of Force = Mass x Acceleration.

How We Accelerate Everyday

zoom_out_map

Hockey

In Ice Hockey, the goal is to get the hockey puck into the goal with the help of hockey sticks and ice. In order to determine the acceleration of the hockey puck, you must know how much it weighs and how hard it was hit.
zoom_out_map

Automobiles

Sports Cars are able to accelerate faster than Semi-Trucks because they have less mass. Since Sports Cars have less mass and the same amount of force, the acceleration increases. When the mass increases and the amount of force stays the same in Semi-Trucks, the amount of acceleration decreases.
zoom_out_map

Friendly Races

If two friends have a race and use the same amount of force, with Person A weighing less that Person B, Person A will have more acceleration, allowing them to win the race. This is because when the mass decreases, but the force stays the same, the acceleration will increase. Since Person B has a greater mass and the same amount of force as Person A, they end up losing the race because they have more mass.

Newton's 3rd Law

Newton's Third Law of Motion is about actions and reactions. The law claims that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This means that every action force causes a reaction force that is equal in size and opposite in direction. This also means that all forces act in pairs.

Reactions....and Actions

zoom_out_map

Air Leaving Balloons

When the air leaves the balloon, it goes down. But, the balloon goes up. This is because the forces exiting the balloon push the balloon in the opposite direction. The action force is the air exiting the balloon and the reaction force is the balloon flying upwards.
zoom_out_map

Swimming

Swimmers push through the water in order to travel across water. The action force is pushing through water with hands and the reaction force is moving the opposite way in the water.
zoom_out_map

Rocket Launches

When rockets launch off into outer space, gases push down on the launch pad to lift the rocket up. The action force is the gas being pushed onto the launch pad and the reaction force is the rocket going up, a result of a build-up in pressure on the launch pad.
Click Here for A Video
This video shows how football involves Newton's 3rd Law of Motion.

Le Citations