Topics 1&2: Forces And Motion Flashcards
What are common units for speed?
Meters per second (m/s)
Kilometres per hours (km/h)
Miles (mph)
How can speed be calculated?
Speed=distance/time
s=d/t
d=s x t
t =d/s
What do light gates do?
To measure speed in a laboratory you need to measure a distance and time. For fast moving objects using a light gate to measure time is more accurate than a stop watch.
Examples of some average speeds:
Airliner - 250m/s High speed train - 90m/s Commuter train - 55m/s Motorway speed limit - 31m/s Ferry- 18m/s Speed limit in towns -10.5m/s Cycling - 6m/s Walking - 1.4m/s
How can a journey be recorded?
A distance/time graph. Since distance and time can be used to calculate speed the graph can tell us different things.
What can a distance time graph tell us about speed?
- horizontal line means the object is stationary.
- straight sloping line means object is travelling at a constant speed.
- steeper the lone the faster the object is travelling.
- the speed is calculated from the gradient of the line.
What is weight?
Weight is the force that acts towards the centre of the Earth.
What do all forces have?
Forces have both a magnitude and a direction and are measured in newtons (N). Forces are vectors.
What is a vector and give some examples of vector quantities:
Quantities that have both size and direction. Examples of vectors are: -force -velocity -acceleration -momentum
What is mass?
Mass measure the amount of matter in an object. It does not have a direction and is measured in (Kg). It only changes if the quantity if the object itself changes. E.g your mass increases if you eat a meal.
What is a scalar quantity and give examples of some scalar quantities:
Scalar quantities have magnitude only.
Examples are:
- time
- distance
- speed
- energy
- mass
What is displacement?
The distance covered in a straight line, and has a direction. The displacement at the end of the journey is usually less than the distance travelled because of the turns and or bends in the journey.
What is velocity?
Velocity is speed in a particular direction.
What are acceleration and momentum classified as and what do they mean?
Acceleration and momentum are both vector quantities.
Acceleration: a measure of how fast velocity is changing.
Momentum: a combination of mass and velocity
What is acceleration?
A change in velocity. Acceleration is a vector quantity. If a moving object changes its velocity or direction then its accelerating.
What does acceleration tell you and what are the units for it?
It tells you the change in velocity each second, so the units for acceleration are meters per second per second. (m/s2)
How is acceleration calculated?
Acceleration = change in velocity/time taken
a= v - u / t
a= acceleration v= final velocity u= initial velocity t= time taken
What is deceleration?
Acceleration does not mean getting faster. An acceleration can also cause an object to get slower. This is called deceleration, and the acceleration will have a negative value.
How can acceleration be related to initial velocity, final velocity and distance traveled by equation.
(Final velocity)2 -(initial velocity)2 = 2 x acceleration x distance
V squared - U squared = 2 x a x X
X represents distance
What is the force (acceleration) of gravity on earth?
9.8 m/s squared. The symbol can be represented by a g and can be rounded to 10m/s squared.
What do velocity time graphs show?
- A horizontal line means the object is travelling at a constant velocity.
- A sloping line shows that the object is accelerating. The stepper the line, the greater the acceleration. If the line slopes down to the right, the object is decelerating. You can find the acceleration of an object from the gradient of the line on the graph.
- a negative velocity (a line below the horizontal axis) shows the object moving in the opposite direction.
What is the area under the velocity time graph?
This is the distance the object has travelled. You can do this by splitting the graph into shapes such as rectangles, squares and triangles to work out the area.
What happens when an object changes its velocity?
It accelerates. Acceleration is a change in velocity so is a vector quantity.
Are forces a vector quantity?
Yes
What does the arrow describing a force tell us?
The magnitude of the force and the direction it is acting in. The size of the force is represented by the length of the arrow.
How do you work out the resultant force of 2 forces?
If the forces are acting in the same direction add them
If they are acting in opposite directions subtract one from the other.
What is the resultant force?
The total force of two or more forces acting upon a single object. It is found by adding together the forces acting in the same direction and subtracting ones in the opposite direction. It is also known as net force.
What happens if the resultant force is zero?
This means the forces in the object are balanced. If the resultant force is not zero the forces are unbalanced and will have a resultant force.
What is Newton’s first law?
A moving object will continue to move at the same speed and direction unless an external force acts on it.
A stationary object will remain at rest until an external force acts on it.
What is important when you are looking at how the velocity of an object changes?
The overall resultant force. Balanced forces will not change the velocity of an object. Unbalanced forces will change the speed or direction of an object.
What is centripetal force?
A force that causes objects to follow a circular path. The force acts towards the centre of the circle.
What happens to the velocity in centripetal force?
The velocity is constantly changing (even if the speed is the same the direction is constantly changing).
The resultant force that causes this change is centripetal force.