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1st Law of Motion

Levitation Homopolar motor

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Once the magnet is set in motion,
why does it stay in motion?

DYNAMICS

Once the magnet is set

in motion, why does

it stay in motion?

Once an object is set in

motion, a force is not

required to keep it in

motion

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Dynamics Notes

III. Definition - study of relationship between force & motion

Isaac Newton

A) 3 Laws of Motion

1st Law - Law of Inertia

When F_net = 0 ...

An object at rest...

...tends to stay at rest.

An object in motion
tends to stay in
motion, .....

..... unless acted on by
an unbalanced force.

Balanced Forces

Unbalanced Forces

Identify all the
UNBALANCED Forces below

In other words ...

If a moving object has
no unbalanced force
on it,...

it would maintain its speed
and direction forever

Unbalanced Forces
Change Motion

Speed

and/or

Direction

Explain this using Newton's 1st Law

(Flash) (HTML5)
Inspired by Dr. Richard Feynman

Why doesn't the ball roll backward
after the cart stops and starts up again?

Notice that at the exact moment the ball reaches the front of the cart, the cart instantly moves ahead at the same velocity it had previously. Therefore the ball never actually comes to rest. It maintains its 'moving inertia'. If there had been even the smallest time interval between when the ball reached the front of the wagon and when the wagon began moving again we would have had different results. The ball would have bounced off the front of the wagon and when the wagon continued forward, the ball would then have rolled to the back of the wagon at an even faster rate.

Observe the animation again, but this time follow the movement of the ball with a ruler and you will see that once the ball starts moving, it never really stops moving.

An object in motion
tends to maintain
its' speed and direction...

unless acted on
by an unbalanced force

John Paul Stapp

Sonic Wind I - 1954

Stapp decelerating in the G-Whiz sled. This five frame 'movie' shows pretty well the stress he experienced. Courtesy EAFB History Office

John Stapp stops short after travelling 421 mph

Stapp suffered repeated and various injuries including broken limbs, ribs, detached retina, and miscellaneous traumas which eventually resulted in lifelong lingering vision problems caused by permanently burst blood vessels in his eyes. In one of his final rocket-propelled rides, Stapp was subjected to 46.2 times the force of gravity.[5]

Stapp Website