What is Mass?

 Mass is the measure of the amount of matter in an object

 Consequently, this is the property of an object that resists change in motion
 The greater the mass of a body, the smaller the change produced by an
applied force
 The SI unit for mass is the kilogram (kg)
Exam Tip
 Since mass is measured in kilograms in Physics, if it is given in grams make
sure to convert to kg by dividing the value by 1000
 It is a common misconception that mass and weight are the same, but they
are in fact very different
 Weight is the force of gravity acting upon an object
o Weight is a vector quantity

 Mass is the amount of matter contained in the object

o Mass is a scalar quantity

Weight
 Weight is the effect of a gravitational field on a mass
 Since it is a force on an object due to the pull of gravity, it is measured
in newtons (N) and is a vector quantity
 The weight of a body is equal to the product of its mass (m) and the
acceleration of free fall (g)

 g is the acceleration due to gravity or the gravitational field strength

 On Earth, this is 9.81 m s−2 (or N kg−1)
Free Fall
 An object in free fall is falling solely under the influence of gravity
 On Earth, all free-falling objects accelerate towards Earth at a rate of 9.81 m
s−2
 In the absence of air resistance, all bodies near the Earth fall with the same
acceleration regardless of their mass

Mass v Weight
 An object’s mass always remains the same, however, its weight will differ
depending on the strength of the gravitational field on different planets
 For example, the gravitational field strength on the Moon is 1.63 N kg-1,
meaning an object’s weight will be about 6 times less than on Earth
On the moon, your mass will stay the same but your weight will be much
lower
 Although you only need to memorise g on Earth, its value on other planets in
our solar system is given in the diagram below. Notice how much this varies
according to the size of the planet
Gravitational field strength of the planets in our solar system
Worked example
The acceleration due to gravity on the moon is 1/6 of that on Earth. If the weight of
a space probe on the moon is 491 N, calculate its mass.
Force & Acceleration
 As stated on the previous page, Newton's Second Law of Motion tells us that
objects will accelerate if there is a resultant force acting upon them
 This acceleration will be in the same direction as this resultant force

Newton’s Second law equation

Resultant Force
 Since force is a vector, every force on a body has a magnitude and direction
 The resultant force is therefore the vector sum of all the forces acting on the
body. The direction is given by either the positive or negative direction as
shown in the examples below
Resultant forces on a body
 The resultant force could also be at an angle, in which case addition of
vectors is used to find the magnitude and direction of the resultant force.
o For more details on this, have a look at the page on “Scalars &
Vectors”
Acceleration
 Given the mass, Newton’s Second Law means you can find the acceleration
of an object
 Since acceleration is also a vector, it can be either positive or negative
depending on the direction of the resultant force
 Negative acceleration is deceleration
 An object may continue in the same direction however with a resultant force
in the opposite direction to its motion, it will slow down and eventually come
to a stop
Worked example
A rocket produces an upward thrust of 15 MN and has a weight of 8 MN.
A. When in flight, the force due to air resistance is 500 kN.
What is the resultant force on the rocket?
B. The mass of the rocket is 0.8 × 105 kg.
Calculate the acceleration of the rocket and the direction its going in.
Exam Tip
The direction you consider positive is your choice, as long the signs of the numbers
(positive or negative) are consistent with this throughout the questionIt is a general
rule to consider the direction of motion the object is travelling in as positive.
Therefore all vectors in the direction of motion will be positive and opposing vectors
such as drag forces, are negative.
Newton's Three Laws of Motion
 Newton’s First Law: A body will remain at rest or move with constant
velocity unless acted on by a resultant force
Worked example
If there are no external forces acting on the car, other than friction, and it is moving
at a constant velocity, what is the value of the frictional force F?

 Newton’s Second Law: A resultant force acting on a body will cause a

change in momentum in the direction of the force. The rate of change in
momentum is proportional to the magnitude of the force
 This can also be written as F = ma
Worked example
A girl is riding her skateboard down the road and increases her speed from 1 m s -
1
to 4 m s-1 in 2.5 [Link] the force driving her forward is 72 N, calculate the combined
mass of the girl and the skateboard.
  Newton’s Third Law: If body A exerts a force on body B, then body B will
exert a force on body A of equal magnitude but in the opposite direction
o Newton’s Third Law force pairs must act on different objects

o Newton’s Third Law force pairs must also be of the same type e.g.
gravitational or frictional
Worked example
Using Newton's third law describe why when a balloon is untied, it travels in the
opposite direction.
Exam Tip
You may have heard Newton’s Third Law as: ‘For every action is an equal and
opposite reaction’. However, try and avoid using this definition since it is unclear
on what the forces are acting on and can be misleading.
Newton’s Third Law force pairs are only those that act on different objects
Linear Momentum
 When an object with mass is in motion and therefore has a velocity, the
object also has momentum
 Linear momentum is the momentum of an object that is moving in
only one dimension
 The linear momentum of an object remains constant unless the system is
acted upon by an external resultant force
 Momentum is defined as the product of mass and velocity

 Where:

o = momentum, measured in kg m s−1

o - mass, measured in kg

o = velocity, measured in m s−1

 Momentum is a vector quantity with both magnitude and direction

o The initial direction of motion is usually assigned the positive direction
When the ball is travelling in the opposite direction, its velocity is
negative. Since momentum = mass × velocity, its momentum is also
negative
Worked example
A tennis ball of mass 60 g travels to the right with a speed of 75 m s −1.
A brick of mass 3 kg is thrown to the right at a speed of 1.5 m s −1.
Determine which object has the greatest momentum.
  Both the tennis ball and the brick have the same momentum
 Even though the brick is much heavier than the ball, the ball is travelling
much faster than the brick
 This means that on impact, they would both exert a similar force (depending
on the time it takes for each to come to rest)
Exam Tip
Since the SI units for momentum are kg m s−1:
 If the mass is given in grams, you need to convert to kg by dividing the value
by 1000
 If the velocity is given in km s−1, you need to convert to m s−1 by multiplying
the value by 1000
 The direction you consider positive is your choice, as long the signs of the
numbers (positive or negative) are consistent with this throughout the
question

Force & Momentum

 Force is defined as the rate of change of momentum on a body
Force is equal to the rate of change in momentum

 The change in momentum is defined as the final momentum minus the initial
momentum:
pfinal − pinitial
 Force and momentum are vectors so they can be either positive or negative
values

Worked example
A car of mass 1500 kg hits a wall at an initial velocity of 15 m s -1.
It then rebounds off the wall at 5 m s -1 and comes to rest after 3.0 s.
Calculate the average force experienced by the car.
Direction of Forces
 The force that is equal to the rate of change of momentum is still
the resultant force
 A force on an object will be negative if it is directed in the opposite motion to
its initial velocity. This means that the force is produced by the object it has
collided with
Fcar = –Fwall

 The diagram shows a car colliding with a wall

 It is the wall that produces a force of -300N on the car
 Due to Newton’s Third Law (see “Newton’s Laws of Motion”), the car also
produces a force of 300N back onto the wall
Maths tip
 ‘Rate of change’ describes how one variable changes with respect to another.
In maths, how fast something changes with time is represented as dividing
by Δt (e.g. acceleration is the rate of change in velocity)
 More specifically, Δt is used for finite and quantifiable changes such as the
difference in time between two events

Worked example
A tennis ball hits a racket with a change in momentum of 0.5 kg m s -[Link] the
different contact times, which tennis racket experiences more force from the tennis
ball?
Exam Tip
In an exam question, carefully consider what produces the force(s) acting. Look out
for words like ‘from’ and ‘acting on’ to determine this and don’t be afraid to draw
a force diagram to figure out what is going on.

Drag Forces
  Drag forces are forces acting the opposite direction to an object moving
through a fluid (either gas or liquid)
 Examples of drag forces are friction and air resistance
 A key component of drag forces is it increases with the speed of the object.
This is shown in the diagram below:

Frictional forces on a car increase with its speed

Worked example
A car of mass 800 kg has a horizontal driving force of 3 kN acting on [Link]
acceleration is 2.0 m [Link] is the frictional force acting on the car?

Exam Tip
Remember to consider drag forces in your calculation for the resultant force. More
details of this are in the notes “Force and acceleration”.
Air Resistance
 Air resistance is an example of a drag force which objects experience when
moving through the air
 At a walking pace, a person rarely experiences the effects of air resistance
 However, a person swimming at the same pace uses up much more energy -
this is because air is 800 times less dense than water
 Air resistance depends on the shape of the body (object) and the speed it’s
travelling
 Since drag force increases with speed, air resistance becomes important
when objects move faster
A racing cyclist adopts a more streamline posture to reduce the effects of
air resistance. The cycle, clothing and helmet are designed to allow them
to go as fast as possible

Exam Tip
If a question considers air resistance to be ‘negligible’ this means in that question,
air resistance is taken to be so small it will not make a difference to the motion of
the body. You can take this to mean there are no drag forces acting on the body.

Terminal Velocity
 For a body in free fall, the only force acting is its weight and its
acceleration g is only due to gravity.
 The drag force increases as the body accelerates
o This increase in velocity means the drag force also increases

 Due to Newton’s Second Law, this means the resultant force and therefore
acceleration decreases (recall F = ma)
 When the drag force is equal to the gravitational pull on the body, the body
will no longer accelerate and will fall at a constant velocity
o This the maximum velocity that the object can have and is called
the terminal velocity
A skydiver in freefall reaching terminal velocity

 The graph shows how the velocity of the skydiver varies with time
 Since the acceleration is equal to the gradient of a velocity-time graph, the
acceleration decreases and eventually becomes zero when terminal velocity
is reached
Worked example
Skydivers jump out of a plane at intervals of a few seconds.
Skydivers A and B want to join up as they fall.

If A is heavier than B, who should jump first?

  Skydiver B should jump first since he will have a lower terminal velocity
 This is because skydiver A has a greater mass, and hence, weight
 Terminal velocity is reached when weight is equal to air resistance
 Therefore, a higher terminal velocity means that skydiver A will have a
greater speed, and will reach terminal velocity faster than skydiver B
Exam Tip
 Exam questions about terminal velocity tend to involve the motion of
skydivers as they fall
 A common misconception is that skydivers move upwards when their
parachutes are deployed - however, this is not the case, they are in
fact decelerating to a lower terminal velocity
 What do you think this would look like on the graph above?

The Principle of Conservation of Momentum

  The principle of conservation of momentum is:
o The total momentum of a system remains constant provided no external
force acts on it
 For example if two objects collide:

the total momentum before the collision = the total momentum after the collision

 Remember momentum is a vector quantity. This allows oppositely-directed vectors to

cancel out so the momentum of the system as a whole is zero
 Momentum is always conserved over time

External and Internal Forces

 External forces are forces that act on a structure from outside e.g. friction and weight
 Internal forces are forces exchanged by the particles in the system e.g. tension in a string
 Which forces are internal or external will depend on the system itself, as shown in the
diagram below:

Internal and external forces on a mass on a spring

 You may also come across a system with no external forces being described as a ‘closed’
or ‘isolated’ system
 These all still refer to a system that is not affected by external forces
 For example, a swimmer diving from a boat:
o The diver will move forward, and, to conserve momentum, the boat will move
backwards
  This is because the momentum beforehand was zero and no external forces are present to
affect the motion of the diver or the boat

Collisions in One & Two Dimensions

One-dimensional momentum problems

 Momentum (p) is equal to: p = m × v

 Using the conversation of linear momentum, it is possible to calculate missing velocities
and masses of components in the system. This is shown in the example below

Worked example

Trolley A of mass 0.80 kg collides head-on with stationary trolley B at a velocity of 3.0 ms-
1
.Trolley B has twice the mass of trolley [Link] trolleys stick together. Using the conservation of
momentum, calculate the common velocity of both trolleys after the collision. Determine
whether this is an elastic or inelastic collision.
  To find out whether a collision is elastic or inelastic, compare the kinetic energy before
and after the collision
o If the kinetic energy is conserved, it is an elastic collision
o If the kinetic energy is not conserved, it is an inelastic collision

 Elastic collisions are commonly those where objects colliding do not stick together and
then move in opposite directions
 Inelastic collision are where objects collide and stick together after the collision

Two-dimensional momentum problems

 Since momentum is a vector, in 2D it can be split up into its x and y components

 Review revision notes 1.3 Scalars & Vectors on how to resolve vectors

Worked example
A ball is thrown at a vertical wall. The path of the ball is shown below

The ball is thrown from S with an initial velocity of 15.0 m s-1 at 60.0° to the horizontal. The
mass of the ball is 60 × 10-3 kg and rebounds at a velocity of 4.6 m [Link] the change in
momentum of the ball if it rebounds off the wall.

Exam Tip

If an object is stationary or at rest, it’s velocity equals 0, therefore, the momentum and kinetic
energy are also equal to [Link] a collision occurs in which two objects are stuck together, treat
the final object as a single object with a mass equal to the sum of the two individual [Link]
2D problems, make sure you’re confident resolving vectors. Here is a small trick to remember
which component is cosine or sine of the angle for a vector R:

Resolving vectors with sine and cosine

Elastic Collisions
 When two objects collide, they may spring apart retaining all of their kinetic energy. This
is a perfect elastic collision
 An elastic collision is one where kinetic energy is conserved

Equation for 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

Worked example
Two similar spheres, each of mass m and velocity v are travelling towards each other. The
spheres have a head-on collision. What is the total kinetic energy after the impact?

Exam Tip

Despite velocity being a vector, kinetic energy is a scalar quantity and therefore will never
include a minus sign. This is because in the kinetic energy formula, mass is scalar and the v2 will
always give a positive value whether its a negative or positive velocity

Inelastic Collisions
 Whilst the momentum of a system is always conserved in interactions between objects,
kinetic energy may not always be
 An inelastic collision is one where kinetic energy is not conserved

Equation for kinetic energy

  The kinetic energy is transferred into other forms of energy such as a heat or sound
 Inelastic collisions can be when two objects collide and they crumple and deform. Their
kinetic energy may also disappear completely as they come to a halt
 A perfectly inelastic collision is when two objects stick together after collision, as shown
in the example below

Worked example

Two trolleys X and Y are of equal mass. Trolley X moves towards trolley Y which is initially
stationary. After the collision, the trolleys join and move off together. Prove that this collision is
inelastic.

Exam Tip
Although kinetic energy may not always being conserved, remember momentum will always be
conserved.