Newton's Laws

Understanding the nature of a force as an interaction between objects is critical to success in a Newton's Laws unit. The What is a Force? Video Tutorial clarifies this concept through several examples. The distinction between contact forces and field forces is also discussed.

The Force Diagrams Video Tutorial discusses force as a vector and explains how force diagrams are used to describe the magnitude and direction of the individual forces acting upon objects. The meaning of balanced and unbalanced forces is explained and illustrated.

The What Do Forces Do? (Balanced vs. Unbalanced Forces) Video Tutorial explains the effect of forces upon the motion of objects. The role of balanced and unbalanced forces is discussed. The various representations - force diagrams, dot diagrams, p-t graphs, and v-t graphs for stationary, constant speed, speeding up, and slowing down motions are associated with each other.

The Newton's First Law Video Tutorial describes the two claims associated with Newton's First Law and the one condition under which those claims are true. The concept of inertia is introduced.

The Force and Motion Misconceptions Video Tutorial addresses some common pitfalls regarding the relationship between the forces that act upon an object and the manner in which the object moves. Misconceptions are directly identified and discussed in a logical manner in an effort to provide the student with a correct Newtonian model of motion.

The Inertia and Mass Video Tutorial explains the concept of inertia and its relationship to mass. The video includes several short demonstrations and animations that illustrate the concept of inertia and its dependency upon mass.

The Recognizing Force Types Video Tutorial describes the various types of forces that objects experience and discusses strategies for recognizing the presence of each type.

The Drawing Free Body Diagrams Video Tutorial explains explains how to analyze a physical situation and construct a free-body diagram that shows the types of forces, the direction of the forces, and the relative size of he forces.

The Mass Vs. Weight Video Tutorial discusses the difference between mass and weight. The meaning of these two terms is clearly explained and the mathematical relationship between them is identified, described, and used.

The Force of Friction Video Tutorial discusses the nature and cause of friction, the types of friction, and the mathematics of friction. It features three animations and two sample problems.

The Newton's Second Law Video Tutorial discusses Newton's Second Law of motion. The relationship between acceleration and net force and acceleration and mass are explained in detail using words, equations, and numerical data. The magnitude and direction of the acceleration and their dependency upon mass and net force are detailed.

The Proportional Reasoning With \(\descriptive{a}{a,acceleration} = \frac{\descriptive{F}{F,force}}{\descriptive{m}{m,mass}}\) Video Tutorial explains how to use the directly proportional and inversely proportional relationships of Newton's second law to predict an acceleration value. Care is taken to describe how a change in one variable (net force or mass) will affect the acceleration. Several examples are given and explained.

The Determining Acceleration Video Tutorial explains how to determine the acceleration of an object from knowledge of the individual force values. After a brief introduction and review, five example problems are thoroughly explained.

The Determining a Value for an Individual Force Video Tutorial explains how to determine the value of an individual force knowledge of the mass, acceleration, and other force values. After a brief introduction and review, four example problems are thoroughly worked out and explained. . Numerous examples, illustrations, and animations assist in the explanations.

The Free Fall and Newton's Second Law Video Tutorial discusses what free fall means, describes several observations of free falling objects having accelerations that are independent of their mass, and uses Newton's second law to explain why the free fall acceleration does not depend upon mass. Numerous examples, illustrations, and video footage assist in the explanations.

The Air Resistance and Terminal Velocity Video Tutorial discusses the nature of air resistance and the factors that affect it. The influence of air resistance on a falling object is discussed and the reason objects attain a terminal velocity is explained. The reason more massive objects fall faster then less massive objects (air resistance included) is discussed in detail.. Numerous examples, illustrations, and animations assist in the explanations.

The Two-Body Problems Video Tutorial discusses how to approach physics problems involving two objects that are moving together as a system. A general strategy is presented and then used in the solution of two problems.

The Atwood's Machines Video Tutorial discusses the use of a system analysis and an individual object analysis in the solving of problems associated with Atwood's Machines. After a thorough discussion of the strategy, an example problem is done.

The Newton's Third Law Video Tutorial explains the claims made by Newton's Third Law of motion. The concept of an interaction force pairs between contacting objects is explained in great depth. The equal and opposite nature of the interaction forces are discussed and numerous examples are given.

The Interaction Force Pairs Video Tutorial discusses a strategy for identifying the interaction force pairs for any given interaction between two objects.