S2 Force Mass and Motion
Motivation
Understanding a changing world means understanding motion. This section is concerned with the key concepts (mass, force) underlying the classical Newtonian theory of motion, and expressed in Newton’s three laws. We illustrate the application of these laws in the context of a wide range of forces, and touch on some of the curious ‘forces’ encountered in ‘accelerating’ reference frames.Objectives
By the end of this section you should:
- understand the roles played by force, mass and inertial reference frames in the laws of motion
- be familiar with a wide variety of the forces encountered in nature
- be able to apply Newton’s laws to analyse the behaviour of systems experiencing such forces
- understand, qualitatively, the fictitious forces experienced in non-inertial reference frames