What is a Force?

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 video lesson answers the following questions:

1. What is a force?
2. What is an effective strategy for analyzing a physical situation and identifying the forces that are present?

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 Builders- Newton's Laws
Students love Concept Builders and you will find plenty of them in our Newton's Laws section of the Concept Builders. They provide a great way to solidify your learning on a topic.

Physics Classroom Tutorial - Newton's Laws Chapter, Lesson 1
Our Physics Classroom Tutorial has a proven record of explaining hard-to-understand concepts in an easy-to-understand language. Lesson 1 of the Newton's Laws chapter provides exceptional support to this video lesson.

Teacher Resources

Teacher Toolkits: Newton's First 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 First 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

Preconceptions
and the one on

Balanced vs. Unbalanced Forces
might be great follow-ups to this video tutorial.

Concept Builders- Newton's Laws
Students love Concept Builders and you will find plenty of them in our Newton's Laws section of the Concept Builders. They make for great reinforcement of in-class activities.

Physics Classroom Tutorial - Newton's Laws Chapter, Lesson 1
Our Physics Classroom Tutorial has been the backbone of our webiste for more than two decades. It has a proven record of explaining hard-to-understand concepts in an easy-to-understand language. Lesson 1 of the Newton's Laws chapter provides exceptional support to this video lesson.

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.