Station 1: Force & Motion Reading & Questions

Station One:  Force and Motion

Balanced & Unbalanced Forces-When forces that are pushing are equal to the forces that are pulling, the forces are balanced.  When the forces on an object are balanced, the object’s motion does not change.  A moving object will keep moving at the same speed in a straight line, in the same direction. An object that is standing still will remain still.  Motion changes only when forces are unbalanced. When the forces on both sides of a game of tug-a-war are even, they are balanced.  The rope does not move.  If there is more force on the one side, the forces are unbalanced.  The rope moves to the side with the greater force.

Newton's First Law

The first law says that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion, with the same direction and speed. Motion (or lack of motion) cannot change without an unbalanced force acting. If nothing is happening to you, and nothing does happen, you will never go anywhere. If you're going in a specific direction, unless something happens to you, you will always go in that direction. Forever.

QUESTION: If an astronaut threw a tool to another astronaut (while outside of their spacecraft in space) and the second astronaut didn’t catch it, what would happen to the tool?

Friction-is the force that opposes motion between two surfaces that are in contact with each other. It might prevent motion from starting, or oppose motion in progress.

Distance is the amount of ground covered by a moving object.

Speed measures how far an object has moved in a certain amount of time.  Speed is found by dividing the distance traveled by the total time it took to travel the distance:

Speed=distance/time

Newton’s Second Law

The second law shows that if you exert the same force on two objects of different mass, you will get different accelerations (changes in motion). The effect (acceleration) on the smaller mass will be greater (more noticeable).