Elastic Collisions When two objects collide, they may spring apart retaining all of their kinetic energy. This is a perfect elastic collision An elastic collision is one where kinetic energy is con...
The Principle of Conservation of Momentum The principle of conservation of momentum is: The total momentum of a system remains constant provided no external force acts on it For example if two obje...
Terminal Velocity For a body in free fall, the only force acting is its weight and its acceleration g is only due to gravity. The drag force increases as the body accelerates This increase in veloc...
Drag Forces Drag forces are forces acting the opposite direction to an object moving through a fluid (either gas or liquid) Examples of drag forces are friction and air resistance A key component o...
Force & Momentum Force is defined as the rate of change of momentum on a body Force is equal to the rate of change in momentum The change in momentum is defined as the final momentum minus th...
Linear Momentum Linear momentum (p) is defined as the product of mass and velocity Momentum is the product of mass and velocity Momentum is a vector quantity - it has both a magnitude and a directi...
Newton's Three Laws of Motion Newton’s First Law: A body will remain at rest or move with constant velocity unless acted on by a resultant force Worked Example If there are no external forces actin...
Force & Acceleration As stated on the previous page, Newton's Second Law of Motion tells us that objects will accelerate if there is a resultant force acting upon them This acceleration will be...
What is Mass? Mass is the measure of the amount of matter in an object Consequently, this is the property of an object that resists change in motion The greater the mass of a body, the smaller the ...
