FORCES and MOTION

Objective
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify the different types of forces and how
they affect the motion of objects.
Motion is defined as a change in position over time. When a ball rolls across the floor or
when you walk to school, it is considered as motion.
Have you ever wondered what causes motion?

Learn about it!

Force
Force simply is defined as a push or a pull. In higher physics, it can be defined as any
influence that may or may not affect the state of motion of an object. Thus, you can say
that force (or the imbalance of force) acting on an object is what causes motion.
There are different types of force. Two of them, which you are going to learn in this
lesson, are:

gravitational force

frictional force

Gravitational Force
is a type of force that acts on all objects with mass. It is a non-contact force.
The amount of gravitational force that acts on an object depends on the masses of the
interacting objects and their separation distance. All objects on Earth is acted upon by a
gravitational force brought about by their interaction with Earth.
Gravitational force is the reason why:

you can stand and walk on the ground

when you jump, you will always return to the ground

why you have weight--that is, the product of your mass and the acceleration due
to gravity

why you will feel lighter on the moon (since the gravitational force on the moon is
weaker compared to that on Earth)

Frictional Force
is a type of contact force. This means that two objects must be in contact for frictional
force to be present. It exists between an object and a surface.
Frictional force is a type of force that:

hinders motion of objects in contact with each other. When an object is in contact
with a surface, the interaction of the object and the surface creates frictional force
which hinders motion. The amount of frictional force present in an interaction
mostly depends on the smoothness of the surface. Rough surfaces tend to
provide more frictional force and smooth surfaces create very little frictional force.
Since frictional force hinders motion, it is very difficult for objects to move on
rough surfaces.

Try it!
Which type of force is responsible for the motion of the following objects?
1.

A ball is dropped from a tall building.

2.

Hockey pucks are able to slide easily across a smooth surface.

What do you think?

What are the other types of force and how do they affect the motion of objects?

Key Points

Force is simply defined as a push or a pull. It is also any influence that may or
may not change the motion of objects.

Gravitational force is a non-contact force between objects with mass.

Frictional force is a contact force between two objects.