P8-Forces in balance Flashcards
What is a vector quantity?
A value with both magnitude (size) and direction.
Velocity is a speed in a certain direction.
What is a scalar quantity?
A value with only magnitude.
Speed has a size, but there is no specific direction.
What is the difference between distance and displacement?
Distance is how far away something is, displacement is how far something has moved from the origin in a specific direction.
Distance is a scalar and displacement is a vector.
What is meant by a negative value of a vector quantity?
It means it is in the opposite direction.
What is a force?
A push or pull on something.
What will happen if no net force acts on an object?
It will remain at rest or constant velocity.
What is a contact force.
A force created by objects that are touching each other.
Give an example of a non-contact force.
force of gravity, electrostatic force, magnetic force
What unit is used to measure force?
Newton, N
What can forces do?
Changes the shape of an object or
change the motion of an object
What is Newton’s first law of motion?
An object will remain at rest or constant velocity unless acted upon by a net force.
What is a balanced force?
When two force act on an object in equal magnitudes and opposite directions, the overall force on the object is 0. The object will remain at rest or constant velocity.
What is an unbalanced force?
When the resultant force on an object is not zero there is a net force. This will result in a change in the object’s motion.
What is a resultant force?
The single overall force acting on an object as the sum of the forces on it.
What is the centre of mass?
The centre of mass is the point of an object that you can consider it’s weight to be acting from.
