Forces Flashcards
displacement
Distance in a given direction
Driving force
force of a vehicle that makes it move (sometimes referred to as motive force)
Forces
A force (in newtons, N) can change the motion of an object
Free-body force diagram
a diagram that shows the forces acting on an object without any other objects or forces shown
Friction
the force opposing the relative motion of two solid surfaces in contact
Magnitude
the size or amount of a physical quantity
Newton’s 1st law of motion
if the resultant force on an object is zero the object stays at rest if it is stationary, or it keeps moving with the same speed in the same direction
Newton’s third law of motion
when two objects interact with each other they exert equal and opposite forces on each other
Parrallelogram of forces
a geometrical method used to find the resultant of two forces that do not act along the same line
Resultant force
a single force that has the same effect as all the forces acting on the object
scalar
a physical quantity, such as mass or energy, that has magnitude only (unlike a vector which has magnitude and direction)
vector
vector is a physical quantity, such as displacement or velocity, that has a magnitude and a direction (unlike a scalar which has magnitude only)