4.Main Content
Forces and motion
Introduction
Force is one of the fundamental concepts of physics. A constant concern in teaching forces is to give real meaning to this abstract concept. Too easily forces become mere arrows on paper and the connection with reality is lost.
Many young students are familiar with the idea of 'feeling a force' when something pushes or pulls them. More abstract ideas can be built on this foundation, through experiment and careful thinking. The aim should not be to define what a force is but to describe what forces can do.
The relationship between forces and motion is counter-intuitive and so needs careful explanation. We provide experiments that show a variety of ways of measuring of position and time. These measurements lead to concepts of speed, velocity, momentum and acceleration.
All manner of everyday phenomena can be explained in terms of Newton’s laws of motion, including circular motion and oscillations. Physicists use Newton's laws to interpret interactions at extreme length scales too, everything from sub-atomic particles to collisions of galaxies.
Experiment collections
- Introduction to forces
- Stretching and force
- Friction, turning and other effects
- Time, distance and speed
- Inertia and Newton's First Law
- Acceleration
- Acceleration due to gravity
- Components of motion
- Force, mass and acceleration - Newton's Second Law
- Gravitational force and free fall
- Action and reaction - Newton's Third law
- Momentum
- Momentum in two dimensions
- Circular motion
- Oscillations
- Simple harmonic motion
Guidance
- Using speed-time graphs to find an equation
- Newton's Laws of Motion
- Multiflash photography
- Weightless?
- Classroom management in semi-darkness
- Two dimensional motion
- Discussion leading to Newton's Second Law
- A language for measurements
Updated 27 Feb 2008
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