3 Dynamics
3.1 Momentum and Newton’s laws of motion
• Mass is a physical quantity that measures the amount of matter in an object
• The SI unit for mass is kilograms (kg)
• Weight is a force
• Since it is a force, the SI unit for weight is Newtons (N)
• You can calculate a body’s weight (W) if you take the product of its mass (m)
with the acceleration of free fall (g).
W = mg
g is the acceleration due to gravity or the gravitational field strength
on Earth, this 9.81 ms-2
• Free fall is falling solely under the influence of gravity.
• On Earth an object in free fall accelerates towards the Earth at 9.81 ms-2 if
air resistance is absent.
• Generally, the heavier the planet, the higher its free fall acceleration would be
and vice versa.
• This means while your mass will stay the same on Mars, your weight will much be
much lower!
• Newtons second law states that an object will accelerate (a) proportionally to
the resultant force (F) acting on the object and inversely proportional to its
mass (m)
F = ma
• Acceleration will always be in the same direction as the resultant force.
• The resultant force is the vector sum of all forces acting on the body
• The resultant could also be at an angle which can be determined by using
triangle or parallelogram method (Chapter 1.4).
• Newton’s First Law states that a body will remain at rest or move with constant
velocity unless acted on by an external force.
• Newton’s Third Law states that if body A exerts a force on body B, body B will
exert a force on body A of equal magnitude but in the opposite direction.
• Linear momentum (p) is defined as the product of mass (m) and velocity (v)
p = mv
• The SI unit for momentum is kgms-1
• Force is defined as the rate of change of momentum on a body.
𝛥𝑝
𝐹=
𝛥𝑡
Here the change in momentum (𝛥𝑝) = pfinal - pinitial
3.2 Non-uniform motion
• Drag forces are forces acting on the opposite direction to an object moving
through a fluid
• E.g. friction and air resistance
• Drag forces increases ad the speed of the object increases
• Terminal velocity is reached when the force moving the object equals to the
drag force.
• The resultant force in this case is zero and acceleration is zero (constant
velocity)
• E.g. for a body in free fall, the only force acting is its weight and the
acceleration is g.
• The drag force increases as the velocity increases causing the acceleration of
the body to decrease.
• At some point, the drag force will equal the weight of the body and the
resultant force will be zero.
• The diagram below shows the velocity-time graph to describe the motion of a
skydiver
3.3 Linear momentum and its conservation
• The principal of conservation of momentum states that the total momentum of
a system remains constant provided no external force acts to it.
• Or as I would like to say mom before = mom after
• You cannot change your mom
• External forces are forces that act on a body on the outside
• E.g. friction, weight, reaction, etc.
• Internal forces are forces exchanged by particles in the system.
• E.g. tension in a spring
• In A-levels the candidate must be able to solve collision problems in both one
and two dimensions for both elastic and inelastic collisions.
• Elastic collisions are collisions when two objects collide and they spring apart
conserving all of their kinetic energy.
• Since kinetic energy depends on the speed of an object, in a perfectly elastic
collision (head-on approach) the relative speed of approach = the relative
speed of separation
• Inelastic collisions is one where the kinetic energy is not conserved.
• An easier way to remember which collision is elastic or inelastic is to remember
that inelastic collisions always result in both objects sticking together after
collision.
• The reason behind this is because during an inelastic collision, some kinetic
energy is used to deform both objects.
Principle of the Conservation of
Momentum
1-Dimension 2-Dimensions
Elastic Inelastic Elastic Inelastic
• An e.g. of an elastic one-dimension collision is shown below
• An e.g. of an inelastic one-dimension collisions is shown below
• An e.g. of an elastic 2-D collision.