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Aristotles ideas lasted almost 2000 years It would take a man named Galileo to start the wheels of change in this field of knowledge called physics.
Concept Check:
According to Aristotle, what tendency of moving objects governed their motions? According to Aristotle, what kinds of motion required no forces?
is called inertia.
Concept Check
A ball rolling on a pool table slowly comes to a stop. How would Aristotle explain this behavior? How would Galileo explain it? How would you explain it? What two main ideas of Aristotle did Galileo discredit?
What is the name of the property of objects to maintain their states of motion?
Concept Check
What is the average speed of cheetah that sprints 100 m in 4 s? The speedometer on a bicycle moving east reads 50 km/h. It passes another bicycle moving west at 50 km/h. Do both bikes have the same speed? Do they have the same velocity? She moves at a constant speed in a constant direction. Say the same sentence in fewer words.
Motion is Relative
Everything is always moving! Our speed relative to the sun is 100,000 km/h. Faster relative to center of our galaxy! Discussing motion always involves a reference point.
Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) Mathematician and physicist Discovered many things:
Laws of motion Optics Gravity Calculus
Concept Check
How does the law of inertia account for removing dirt from your shoes by stamping on the porch before entering a house or removing dust from a coat by shaking it?
Net Force
The Net Force (Fnet) is the sum of all the forces acting on an object. Force is measured in Newtons (N).
5N 5N
10 N
Equilibrium rules
Forces are vector so they have direction and magnitude. Upward forces +, downward forces -, forward forces +, backward forces -.
Equilibrium
Weight is a force (-) that acts in a downward direction (towards the center of the Earth). For an object at rest, there must be an opposite but equal force acting on it to have a net force = 0 N. That force is called the Normal force (Fn). Its always perpendicular to the surface.
Concept Check
As you stand at rest on a floor, does the floor exert an upward force on your feet? If so, what exactly is this force?
Earths Rotation
If the Earth came to a sudden stop, and I jumped up into the air at that exact moment, wouldnt I land safely back on the ground?
Hard Work!
Humankind struggled for nearly 2000 years in developing the ideas of this section. You should be patient with yourself if it takes a few days or weeks to achieve as much!