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After completing this chapter, you
will be able to:
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- Identify Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation,
and describe practical illustrations of the laws.
- Explain what factors affect friction, and discuss the role
of friction in daily activities and sports.
- Define impulse and momentum, and explain the relationship
between them.
- Explain what factors govern the outcome of a collision between
two bodies.
- Discuss the relationships among mechanical work, power, and
energy.
- Solve quantitative problems related to kinetic concepts.
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What can people do to improve traction when walking on icy streets?
Why do some balls bounce higher on one surface than on another?
How can football linemen push larger opponents backward? In this
chapter, we introduce the topic of kinetics with a discussion of
some important basic concepts and principles relating to linear
kinetics.
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Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) discovered many of the
fundamental relationships that form the foundation for the field
of modern mechanics. These principles highlight the interrelationships among
the basic kinetic quantities introduced in Chapter 3.
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Newton’s first law of motion is known as the law of inertia. This law states the
following:
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- A body will maintain a state of rest or constant velocity
unless acted on by an external force that changes the state.
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In other words, a motionless object will remain motionless unless
there is a net force (a force not counteracted by another force)
acting on it. Similarly, a body traveling with a constant speed
along a straight path will continue its motion unless acted on by
a net force that alters either the speed or the direction of the
motion.
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It seems intuitively obvious that an object in a static (motionless)
situation will remain motionless barring the action of some external
force. We assume that a piece of furniture such as a chair will maintain
a fixed position unless pushed or pulled by a person exerting a
net force to cause its motion. When a body is traveling with a constant
velocity, however, the enactment of the law of inertia is not so
obvious, because, in most situations, external forces do act to
reduce velocity. For example, the law of inertia implies that a
skater gliding on ice will continue gliding with the same speed and
in the same direction, barring the action of an external force.
But in reality, friction and air resistance are two forces normally
present that act to slow skaters and other moving bodies.
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Newton’s second law of motion is an expression of the
interrelationships among force, mass, and acceleration. This law,
known as the law of acceleration, may ...