SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
Sir Isaac Newton has significant contributions in the field of Physics as he
combined his idea with other scientists like Galileo, who have given us the most
unified picture of how the Universe work. Newton is the one who formulated
the three laws of motion and gravitation by which we can be able to predict the
movement of everything around us.
THREE LAWS OF MOTION
Newton's first law (Law of inertia) states that a body at rest will remain
at rest, and a body in motion will remain in motion at a constant velocity
in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force. The external
force in this law being a force that does not originate from the body itself.
Another way to define an inertial frame of reference is a frame of
reference in which Newton's first law remains true.
Newton's second law (Law of acceleration) states that if a net external
force acts on a body, the body accelerates. The direction of acceleration is
the same as the direction of the net force. The mass of the body times the
acceleration of the body equals the net force vector.
F = ma
Newton's third law (action-reaction forces) states that when two bodies
interact, they exert forces on each other that at each instant are equal in
magnitude and opposite in direction. It simply states that for every action,
there is an equal and opposite reaction.
These forces are called action-reaction forces. Each of these two forces
acts on only one of the two bodies; they never act on the same body.
Inertial Frame of Reference
At some point in your life, you've probably been on a form of public
transportation. It might have been a bus, metro, train, plane, or even
something else. From your point of view in the vehicle, these people are
sitting or standing still. However, to a bystander standing still outside the
vehicle, you and your fellow passengers are moving at a faster velocity.
Inertia is the property of matter in which an object that is at rest wants to
remain at rest, and an object that is moving wants to remain moving in a
straight line unless another force acts upon it. Likewise, an inertial frame
of reference is a reference frame in which an object stays either at rest or
at a constant velocity unless another force acts upon it.
Newton's first law of motion:
Imagine you are standing still in a stationary train-then suddenly it moves
forward. Your body has inertia, and so a force is needed to change its
velocity. The train floor accelerates your feet but your body falls
backward. As you hold on to the handle, the force exerted by the train
through the handle gives your body forward velocity.
