Drawing Free-Body Diagrams
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 video lesson answers the following questions:
- How do you draw a free-body diagram to represent the relative strength and direction of the individual forces acting upon an object?
Video
You can watch the video below, or click here to watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab).
To improve the effectiveness of the learning experience, The Physics Classroom has provided the following tools:
Additional and Related Learning Tools
Concept Builder: Recognizing Forces
Students love Concept Builders. They provide practice on questions with immediate feedback to answers. Missed questions re-appear until mistakes are corrected. There are mulitple levels of difficulty. This Concept Builder provides practice with recognizing the force types acting upon objects.
Concept Builder: Match That Free-Body Diagram
Similar to the above, this Concept Builder provides practice recognizing force types and usinig the recognition to identify the free-body diagram for an object in a given situation.
Physics Interactives: Newton’s Laws Section - Free-Body Diagrams
Our Free-Body Diagrams interactive is one of the most popular pages on our website. There must be a reason for that. Check it out!
Physics Classroom Tutorial: Newton’s Laws Chapter, Lesson 2, Drawing Free-Body Diagrams
When you need a quick written reference, turn to our Tutorial section. It reads like a book but feels like a conversation. Try it!
Teacher Resources
Teacher Toolkits: Newton's Second Law
Teacher Toolkits provide teachers a collection of annotated links to vetted resources on the internet that are standards-based and multimedia reliant. This particular Toolkit is on Newton's Second Law and should assist a teacher in finding resources for planning lessons that are next steps to this video.
Curriculum Corner: Newton's Laws Chapter
The Curriculum Corner provides classroom-ready Think Sheets that fuel great in-class discussions. The think sheets on Recognizing Forces and Constructing Free-Body Diagrams might be great follow-ups to this video tutorial.
Concept Builder: Recognizing Forces
Students love Concept Builders. They provide practice on questions with immediate feedback to answers. Missed questions re-appear until mistakes are corrected. There are mulitple levels of difficulty. This Concept Builder provides practice with recognizing the force types acting upon objects. It's a great in-class activity.
Concept Builder: Match That Free-Body Diagram
Similar to the above, this Concept Builder provides practice recognizing force types and usinig the recognition to identify the free-body diagram for an object in a given situation. Another great in-class activity.
Physics Interactives: Newton’s Laws Section - Free-Body Diagrams
Our Free-Body Diagrams interactive is one of the most popular pages on our website. There must be a reason for that. Check it out! Make it part of your lesson plans.
Physics Classroom Tutorial: Newton’s Laws Chapter, Lesson 2, Drawing Free-Body Diagrams
When you (or your students) need a quick written reference, turn to our Tutorial section. It reads like a book but feels like a conversation. Many teachers link to our Tutorial pages from their course pages.
Lesson Notes
Download (opens in a new tab) or view below
Slides
Do you like the slides we used? They are available in our low cost Teacher Presentation Pack, along with other updated materials used in our presentation.