Term | Definition |
motion | the process of changing position |
reference point | the starting point you use to describe the motion or position of an object |
distance | the total length of your path |
displacement | the distance between your initial, or starting, position and your final position |
speed | the distance an object moves divided by the time it took to move that distance |
velocity | the speed and direction of an object's motion |
acceleration | the measure of the change of velocity during a period of time |
force | a push or pull on an object |
contact force | a push or a pull applied by one object to another object that is touching it |
noncontact force | a force that pushes or pulls an object without touching it |
friction | a contact force that resists the sliding motion between two objects that are touching |
gravity | a noncontact attractive force that exists between all objects that have mass |
balanced forces | when the net force on an object is 0 N, the forces acting on the object is |
unbalanced forces | when the net force acting on an object is not 0, the forces acting on the object are |
inertia | the tendency of an object to resist a change in motion is called |
Newton's first law of motion | states that if the net force acting on the object is zero, the motion of the object does not change |
Newton's second law of motion | states that the acceleration of an object is equal to the net force applied to the object divided by the object's mass |
Newton's third law of motion | says that when one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts a force of the same size, but in the opposite direction, of the first object |
force pair | when two objects exert forces on each other, the two forces are a |