Newton’s Second Law of Motion

Newton’s first law of motion states that a body at rest or a body at motion will remain at rest or motion respectively until an external force acts on it. In other words, what this law teaches is that as long as the force that is acting on an object is balanced there will be no change in the motion or rate of motion of the object, it is only when an unbalanced net force acts on it, will it accelerate. Newton’s second law of motion deals with exactly that; the unbalanced net force. In this article, we will be understanding the second law of motion and all the different aspects of it.

NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION 

Newton’s second law of motion states that the force that is acting on an object is equivalent to the mass of the object multiplied by its acceleration. The formula for this is F = ma.

In other words, the acceleration of an object depends upon two things, the mass of the object and the net force acting on it.

The acceleration of the object is directly related to the net force that is acting upon it and it is inversely related to the mass of the object. In other words, the higher the force acting on an object higher the acceleration whereas the higher the mass of an object, the acceleration will be less. A simple way to understand this is by imagining a box that we are pushing. The harder we push, the faster the box moves, and on the other hand, the heavier the box is, the slower it will move for the same push. The formula for this is a= F/m. Since all the terms are interrelated, it’s important to understand that any change in even one of the quantities will proportionally affect the other quantities. For example, if the mass is doubled, the acceleration will be halved, and to keep the acceleration as earlier, the force would have to be doubled.

It is extremely important to keep in mind that the force that is being spoken about in the second law of motion is not any force, it is the net force. This raises the question, what is the net force? The net force is the total force or sum of all the forces that are exerted on an object at a specific instant. In the case of vectors (a quantity with magnitude and direction such as displacement, acceleration, force), you have to take direction into account, hence the net force in that situation becomes the vector sum of all the forces that are being exerted on the object.

Newton’s second law is one of the most important laws in physics, it laid down the ground for modern physics. That’s because it explains the time rate of change of momentum in a body and how it is directly related to the net force applied to it. This law is extremely important when it comes to transportation, most importantly for when a plane is taking off.

 Conclusion

Newton’s second  law of motion teaches us that force applied on an object is indirectly equal to the product of the mass of the object and the acceleration. Newton’s second law of motion laid down the framework for modern physics, and in turn, helped us create a lot of modern technology, specifically transport technology.