Module 10

Force and Motion

What this module is about

A lot of Physics can be observed in playing

tug-of-war where both ends of the rope are being
pulled in opposite directions. If the players on
one end of the rope suddenly release the rope,
the players on the other end will definitely tumble
to the ground! Force and Motion!

In this module you will learn many things

about Physics particularly about forces that are
the primary cause of changes in motion. This
module includes these lessons such as:
Fig. 1 Tug-of-War
 Lesson 1 - Forces: The Secrets Unfold!
 Lesson 2 - Friction
 Lesson 3 - Newton’s Laws of Motion
 Lesson 4 - The Universal Law of Gravitation
 Lesson 5 - Impulse and Momentum

Read, enjoy, and discover the secrets of Physics!

What you are expected to learn

At the end of the chapter, the students should be able to;
1. define and describe the fundamental principles of force and motion;
2. state the laws of motion;
3. apply the laws of motion to land transportation.
4. explain road safety measures using the concept of impulse and momentum
5. appreciate the contributions of Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton in the study of
motion; and,
6. appreciate physics through its application to practical situations.

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 how to learn from this module
Here’s a simple guide for you in going about the module:

1.Read and follow the instructions very carefully.

2.Take the pretest. It is a simple multiple-choice test provided at the start to
determine how much you know about the content of this module.
3.Check your answers against the correct answers provided at the last page of the
module.
4.Be very honest in taking the test so you know how much knowledge you already
have about the topic.
5.Read the different lessons included in this module.
6.Perform all the activities, as these will help you have a better understanding of the
topic.
7.Take the self-tests at the end of each lesson.
8.Finally, take the post-test at the end of the module.

Good Luck and have fun!

What to do before (Pretest)

Direction: Choose the letter of the best answer. Write your answer on a separate
sheet of paper.

1. The law of inertia applies to .

A.moving objects C. both moving and nonmoving objects
B.objects that are not moving

2. If you were in a space ship and fired a cannon ball into frictionless space, the amount of
force needed to keep it going would be_________.
A.twice the force with which it was fired
B.the same amount of force with which it was fired
C.one half the force with which it was fired
D.zero, since no force is necessary to keep it moving

3. Which has more mass, a kilogram of feathers or a kilogram of iron?

A . fe a the rs
B. i r o n
C .They both have the same mass
D .Cannot be determined from the given information.

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4. The force required to maintain an object at a constant speed in free space is equal to

_____________.
A.zero C. the weight of the object
B.the mass of the object D. the force required to stop it

5. You would have the largest mass of gold if your chunk of gold weighed 1 N on the
__________.
A.Moon C. planet Jupiter
B.Ear th

6. An object weighs 30 N on earth. A second object weighs 30 N on the moon. Which has
greater mass?
A.The one on earth C. They have the same mass
B.The one on the moon

7. Suppose the force of friction on a sliding object is 10N. The force needed for it to maintain
a constant velocity is _______________.
A.more than 10 N C. 10 N
B.less than 10 N

8. Compared to its weight on earth, a 10-kg object on the moon will weigh .
A.less C. the same amount
B.more

9. An apple weighs 1N. When held at rest above your head, the net force on the apple is

_____________.
A. 0 N C. 1 N
B.0.1 N D. 9.8 N

10. An apple weighs 1N. The net force on the apple when it is in free fall is .
A. 0 N C. 1 N
B.0.1 N D. 9.8 N

11. When a woman stands with two feet on a scale, the scale reads 500 N. When she lifts
one foot, the scale reads .
A.less than 500 N C. 500 N
B.more than 500 N

12. A block is dragged without acceleration in a straight-line path across a level surface by a
force of 6 N. What is the frictional force between the block and the surface?
A.less than 6 N C. more than 6 N
B. 6 N D. Needs more information to say.

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 13. As a 500 N lady sits on the floor, the floor exerts a force on her equal to
_________.
A.1000 N C. 250 N
B.500 N D. 50 N

14. An unfortunate bug splatters against the windshield of a moving car. Compared to the
force of the car on the bug, the force of the bug on the car is .
A.larger C. the same
B.smaller

15. An unfortunate bug splatters against the windshield of a moving car. Compared to the
deceleration of the car on the bug, the deceleration of the bug on the car is
.
A. larger B. smaller
C. the same

16. The person is attracted towards the center of the earth by a 500-N gravitational force.
The force with which the earth is attracted toward the person is .
A.very very small C. 500 N
B.very very large

17. Two people pull on a rope in a tug-of-war. Each pulls with a 400 N force. What is the
tension in the rope?
A. 0 C. 600 N
B.400 N D. 800 N
18. What is the minimum resultant possible when adding a 3-N force to an 8-N force?
A. 24 N C. 8 N
B. 11 N D. 5 N

19. How does the acceleration of an object change in relation to its mass? It is
_________.
A.directly proportional
B.inversely proportional
C.acceleration doesn’t depend on mass at all

20. Forces always occur .

A.by themselves
B.in pairs
C.as single quantities
D.in triplets
Key to answers on page 38

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Lesson 1 Forces: The Secrets Unfold!

(by mpem)
In the beginning there was Aristotle Did you know how the word “force”
And the objects at rest tend to remain at rest has come about? Who were the scientists
And the objects in motion tend to come to rest and great men behind the concept?
And God saw that it was boring although restful Here’s a very good poem. Try reading it
so you would have a good glimpse of
Then God created Newton who were behind the development of
And objects at rest tend to remain at rest forces and motion!
And objects in motion tended to remain in
motion
And energy was conserved and momentum was
conserved,
And matter was conserved
And God saw that it was conservative...

What you will do

Activity 1.1 Men behind forces

Objective: To be able to come up with a timeline of force and motion.

Materials: washer or 10 centavo-coin, centimeter ruler paper

Procedure:

1.The pictures, dialogues and dates on the next page show significant moments in the
development of the concepts of force and motion.
2.Label the picture, dialogue, and date with 1 if you think the set of picture, dialogue and
date occurred first. Label the next set as 2 and so on until all sets are labeled forming a
timeline.

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 Johannas
No. Philopon Hey guys look at this. If
us (550 I All right! And when that
exert an impetus on an impetus diminishes,
object moves. Ha! A motion
new also diminishes. When
movin the
No. No.
No.

Aristo Let’s rename impetus as force. I

I don’t think that the force is believe
proportional to the velocity. Velocity that force affects the velocity of
moving
No. remains constant if no force, objects. Thus, force is proportional to
including
acceleratio
No. No.
Newt

What if I push an object which is already moving

No.
horizontally?
Wouldn’t its velocity change and cause acceleration in the
object? Thus, force would cause acceleration in horizontal
motion. The natural acceleration actually observed in vertical
Galil motion must be the result of a vertical force on the body,
without this force the natural vertical motion would also be at
vertical force is of course the force of
No. Jean No.
Buriden
(355

Key to answers on page 41

Terms to Remember! So, now you know who coined the word “force”.
Mass Let’s now take a close look at what force is. Force is
 Amount of matter commonly described as a push or a pull. A body with
in an object. mass is capable of interacting with another body. This
Bodies in direct contact interaction between two (2) bodies is known to be a force.
 Two bodies
touching on another Force is not something a body has, like mass, but it
is an interaction between one body and another.

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 Depending on the circumstances, a body may posses a capability of exerting force on
another body but it cannot possess force as a thing in itself.

Forces can be contact or non-contact. Contact forces are forces that result when two
(2) bodies in direct contact (touching each other) interact with one another. Direct contact
must happen between two (2) bodies for the two (2) bodies to interact with each other.

Now try this one so you will have a better understanding of what contact force is!

What you will do

Activity 1.2 Contact and non-contact forces

Objective: To be able to understand the concept of contact

force. Materials: chair, paper, bag

Procedure:
1.Push a chair.
2.Pull a paper out of your bag.
3.Lift your bag.
Guide Questions:

1.In which of the following cases were you able to have a direct contact with each of the
three objects (chair, paper, bag)?
2.Were you able to exert a contact force? Why do you say so?
Key to answers on page 39

In all these cases, contact forces occur. To be able to push a chair your hand should
be placed in contact with the chair. To be able to pull a paper out of your bag you must use
your hand, and your hand must be touching the paper. To lift your bag, you must hold the
bag.

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 Terms to Non-contact forces, on the other hand, are forces that
Remember! Field occur when the fields around objects (e.g. gravitational field,
• Space surrounding electric field, or magnetic field) interact with another field
objects with mass located around another body. It is a non-contact force since
or objects which the bodies themselves are not directly touching each other
are electrically rather only their fields interact with one another.
charged or have
magnetic
We may see the earth as
constantly kept in orbit by the sun. But behind that
scene we can actually attribute this effect to the
gravitational fields of both the earth and the sun as
interacting with each other. Thus, gravitational forces
are examples of non-contact forces. Gravitational
forces are always attractive in nature. This means that
while the earth is attracted to the sun, earth also pulls
the sun. However, since earth has a smaller mass than
the sun, the earth tends to move around the sun instead
of the other way around. Fig. 1.1. Earth-

Magnetic fields also interact with each other. The Sun

magnetic fields may be pulling each other as in the case System
where opposite poles (North and South Poles) of the
magnet are facing each other. They may also be pushing
each other as in the case where the same poles of the
magnets are facing each other. This interaction is called
the magnetic force, is another example of a non-contact
force.
Charged bodies are bodies whose number of Fig. 1.2. Magnets and their
electrons is not equal to the number of protons. Bodies magnetic field
that are not charged are called neutral
bodies. These bodies have the same
number of protons and electrons. It
m a y h a ve h a p p e n e d t h a t s o me
electrons left the atoms of the object
thus causing the object to have
protons than electrons. This body is
said to be a negatively charged body.
A body, which cap tu re s excess
electrons, will eventually have more
number of electrons and protons and
are known as positively charged
Fig. 1.3. Electric field of charged particles

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bodies. Around every charged object is an electric field, which interacts with the electric field
of another charged body. The interaction between the electric field of one charged body to
another charged body is known as electrostatic force. Since only electric fields of two
charged bodies interact and no direct contact can be observed between the two bodies,
then electrostatic force is also considered a non-contact force. Take a look at how charges
interact in Figure 1.3.

Here’s an illustration of an atom. (Figure 1.4). Can

you identify some of the subatomic particles? As you can
see protons and neutrons are inside the nucleus of an
atom. Protons are positively charged while neutrons are
neutrally charged. Since like charges repel each other,
protons inside the nucleus must be repelling each other.
How then are they able to stay together inside the
nucleus? This is because another non-contact force,
believed to be the strongest among the non-contact
forces keeps the protons inside the nucleus of the atom.
This force is known as the nuclear force. Nuclear force is
usually categorized as a weak or strong.
Fig. 1.4.An Atom

Remember Newton? He was the one who said that a

vertical force directed towards the center of an object is
called gravity. Both gravity and horizontal forces can be
quantified using a force meter of a spring balance. The
standard International (SI) unit of force is newton (N) to pay
tribute to Sir Isaac Newton who was able to conceptualize
the effect of forces on motion. In the English system,
however, the standard unit of force is called pound (lb),
which is defined in terms of Newton as:

1 lb = 4.45 N
1N = 0.225 lb Fig. 1.5 Newton

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 What you will do
Self-Test 1.1

Direction: Write “F” if a contact force has been exerted in the situation and “nF” if a
non-contact force has been exerted.

1.Pushing a cart
2.Touching a rock
3.Falling rock
4.Moon’s attraction to Earth causing tides
5.Your hair being attracted to your comb after stroking it with the same comb.
6.Tissue being attracted to a plastic sheet
7.Kicking a ball
8.Sitting on a chair
9.Your skin hair being attracted to the TV screen when you switch it on or off.
10. Pulling a cart.

Key to answers on page 39

Lesson 2 Friction
Did you ever experience slipping in a pavement?
Did you feel embarrassed? What conditions caused you
to slip? Did you slip when the pavement was wet or
dry? Most accidents happen during rainy days because
the road is slippery when wet. It is harder to stop a
vehicle on wet roads You yourself will most likely to slip
if you don’t wear your pair of rubber shoes. This
describes the effect of friction. What is friction?

Friction is a contact force that is present in Figure 2.1. Road Intersection

walking, running, playing, writing and pushing objects
we still encounter friction.

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