Newton's Second Law: Acceleration Proportional to Force, Inversely Proportional to Mass - Essay Sample

Introduction

Newton's second law of motion states that the acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass and directly proportional to the net force acting on it (Chandrasekhar, 2003). Newton's first law explains the behavior of an object when the resultant external forces on it are zero. The second explains what happens when a net force is applied to the object. These two laws can be considered as a definition of force. According to the law, when a force is applied to a body, it accelerates. It should be noted that force and acceleration are vector magnitudes, hence have a value, an address, and a sense. If the mass of the bodies is constant, the formula that expresses the second law of Newton is:

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Force = mass x acceleration.

However, when the mass of the body increases, the acceleration decreases. Therefore, the amount of movement (p) must set, equivalent to the product of the mass of a body by its speed. That is:

p = m x v.

The SI units for the amount of movement (p) is measured in Kg m / s because the unit for the mass is the kilogram and the unit for the acceleration is meters per second. So:

Force (N) = mass (kg) x acceleration (m / s2)

A force is a cause capable of causing a change in a body speed, that is, acceleration. In addition, the direction of the acceleration coincides with that of the force and the parameter that relates force and acceleration is precisely the mass of the object, an intrinsic property to it. When a force acts on an extended body, it can be accelerated resulting into motion or simply deform. Actually, what happens in this last case is that there is a relative displacement between the particles that make up the object and its geometry. That is, accelerations take place, but at a microscopic level (Chandrasekhar, 2003). The second law is applied in day to day life of humans when stopping objects or when pushing objects.

Position and How It Is Measured

To describe rest or movement you have to choose a reference system. A reference system is a point with respect to which we refer the movement of bodies, endowed with axes with respect to which we give the position of the body (the coordinates of the point where it is). By position, it is understood that it is the place where a mobile object is found at a certain instant of time t (Halliday, Resnick & Walker, 2018). It is usually represented with a position vector (r). Given the dependence of this vector over time, that is, if they give us r (t) , all the necessary information for calculations kinematics is available. In this case, it is meant that the position is a vector quantity and that its magnitude for a specific case depends on how much time has elapsed since he stops remaining in the initial condition (Halliday et al., 2018).

The direction is very critical in position, hence a vector quantity. When the position of a body changes with time, the motion can be graphically demonstrated. On the graph, the position can be measured. The position of an object in a single directional motion is always denoted by letter x. In order to measure the position of an object, one requires a gyroscope and an accelerometer. Double integration is recommended. For an absolute position, one will require an optical tracking device or a GPS.

Forces on Blocks Placed On a Spinning Stool

The forces occurring in a situation where two blocks are placed on a rotating stool side by side originate from the tangential velocity. When the table starts to spin, the directions of the objects are changing constantly, without changing the magnitude. The objects, therefore, will gain acceleration. The two objects demonstrate a circular motion with the pivot being the center of rotation and radius R and r. R is the radius of the further object and r the radius of the object nearer to the pivot. The acceleration involved is inward towards the center of the circular path (Derjaguin, 1960).

Atomic Theory

The matter is made up of small particles, joining to form objects f bigger magnitudes as big as the size of the earth (Tu-nan, 1993). The smallest unit that a matter can be split into is the atom. The atom is composed of a positively charged nucleus formed by protons and neutrons, collectively known as nucleons around which is an electronic cloud of negative charge.

The Atomic nucleus is formed by nucleons, which are of two types, positive electric charge particle equal to an elementary charge, and a mass of 1.6726x10-27 Kg. and Neutrons Particles lacking electrical charge and a mass of 1,672x10-27 Kg. The simplest nucleus is that of Hydrogen, formed only by a proton (Tu-nan, 1993).

Antimatter

Antimatter is a term used in physics and chemistry, to define the matter composed of antiparticles. For example, an antiproton ( proton of negative charge) or an antielectron (electron with a positive charge), are those that make up an atom of antimatter, in the same way, that an electron and a proton make up a hydrogen atom (Chaikin, Lubensky, & Witten, 1995). Antimatter, as its own name says, is the opposite of matter, that is, a matter composed of particles with an opposite electrical charge to the normal. When a matter and antimatter come into contact, they cause the destruction of both, meaning that a transformation would occur in which matter would become energy.

According to the cosmic theory, in the universe are present equal amounts of materials and antimaterials enclosed (for obvious reasons), in areas distant from each other. However, when they are found, large destruction phenomena occur. Antimatter was discovered in 1932, by the American physicist Carl Anderson, at that time Anderson was investigating the behavior of cosmic rays when he happened to observe and photograph a positron (Chaikin et al., 2003). Later, the antiprotons were discovered, this was possible through the Pamela satellite, launched in 2006. This satellite had as its mission, to conduct a study of the sun's energy particles. With the passage of time, man perfected the technique of artificially manufacturing an antiproton.

Through experiments, it has been confirmed that when matter and antimatter collide, they neutralize and disappear. The matter that disappears is transformed into gamma radiation; confirming in this way what is expressed in Einstein's theory of relativity, which predicted the reversibility between matter and energy (Chaikin et al., 1995). Antimatter has different uses: it can be used as fuel. It can also be used to generate energy, since it is one of the most powerful energy sources that humanity has known, besides being non-polluting; a simple drop is capable of producing (for a day) electric power to an entire city.

In the medical area, the main application of antimatter is positron emission tomography. The gamma rays that are derived from the annihilation of matter and antimatter are used to locate tumor tissues in the body. They are also being applied in cancer therapies, it is expected that the use of antiprotons can destroy cancerous tissues.

Pitting On a Boat Propeller

In low-pressure fluids, there are low pressures in localized points. These pressures may be less than the corresponding vapor pressure of the liquid. Here, the liquid evaporates and steam bubbles occur. Due to the increase in volume during evaporation, the flow patterns change with respect to the unaltered flow. In the bombs, the steam bubbles can grow so much that the cross-section of the remaining flow is significantly reduced and the power of the pump is affected (Munson et al., 2013). The process is often unstable because the speed of flow increases due to the reduction of the cross section of flow and, therefore, cavitations is driven by the fall of further pressure.

Cavitation lowers the efficiency of the propeller due to increased friction. Uneven prop loads may result as a result of vibrations caused by cavitation. Pitting occurs once the bubbles collapse focussing all the forces on a small spot on the blade. The vibrations are hard early enough directing early repair.

Speed of Sound Through Steel and Water

Light travels the fastest in solids. Therefore the person listening through the pipe of steel pole will hear the voice faster than the one listening to the voice through a water column (Morse, 1948). The particles of solids are closely packed together compared to the particle orientation in liquids. The vibrations of sound are therefore easily passed over to the neighbouring molecules hence making sound movement faster.

Sound is a vibration of kinetic energy from one molecule to the other. The closer the particles are to each other, the faster it takes the vibration to move from particle to particle. In a rod of steel, the molecules are closely packed compared to the molecules in water. It, therefore, takes sound a long time to navigate through the water compared to the time it navigates through the water. Sound also travel in different speeds in the specific materials. Two factors affect the velocity of sound in the matter include the elastic properties and the density. Elastic properties are determined by the phase of matter. Flexible materials vibrate faster hence sound travels faster in them. Density is the mass of a substance per unit volume. An increase in the density of a substance increases the mass of the substance per unit volume. To vibrate heavy particles, it requires more energy (Morse, 1948). This fact makes a sound to travel slower in denser materials than the less dense media.

The Particle Model of Light

Newton proposed that light exists in the form of particles. The particles move at very high speed hence maintaining a straight line. The particle model hence proves the rectilinear propagation of light (Ryer & Light, 1997). The reflection of a beam of light behaves in a similar way the elastic frictionless ball bounces on a smooth service. Newton also proved that the angle of incidence of the collision and the angle of reflection are equal. This, therefore, is one of the proofs that light consists of little masses.

Refraction

The rays of light are deflected (refracted) when they go from water to air, making objects appear less deep and closer to the observer. Air travels at different velocities in different media due to the difference in the refractive indices of the two media. Water has a higher refractive index than that of air. This difference makes a ray of light to travel with higher speed in the air than it is in water and therefore the ray travels slower in water. The light bends making it the straw appears bent (Gomez-Reino, Perez & Bao, 2012).

Provided the materials are transparent and are of different refractive indices, a ray or a beam of light moving from one medium to another bends, hence making any object observed through the interface appear bent.

Static Electric Charge

Static electricity is an electric charge without movement. All matter is made up of particles atoms. An atom is the smallest unit of a given matter that still retains the properties of material even after getting split into smaller equal parts. Several atoms may combine to form molecules, which are bigger units of the particles making up an object. An atom is made up of protons, positively charged and neutrons which are neutral. The two are enclosed in a nucleus which is positively charged (Reitz, Milford & Christy, 2008). At rest, the positive charge of the nucleus is equal to the sum of the negative charges of all the electrons that revolve around them. This means that the load is neutral. When the nucleus gains or loses electrons, an imbalance in the charge occurs. When an atom loses one or more electrons the nucleus acquires a positive charge, while an atom that gains one or more electrons acquire a negative charge. The unstable element is known as an ion (Reitz et al., 2008).

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