Weekly Summary:
This week, we began to analyze forces. We discussed forces and how to make force diagrams. The steps for making a force diagram are listed below:
This week, we began to analyze forces. We discussed forces and how to make force diagrams. The steps for making a force diagram are listed below:
- Represent the object with a dot (particle)
- Draw arrows to represent the forces acting on the object. Arrows are drawn pointing away from the dot. Longer arrows = bigger force.
- Label the arrows with a capital F to indicate that it represents a force. Add subscripts to describe the force using agent-on-object notation. Ex: Gravity arrow would be labeled " FEO"
- Friction is an interaction between surfaces and the arrow gets labeled with a lowercase f. The subscripts are the same as the surface force.
- Forces are balanced when there is no acceleration. This could be when the object is at rest, or when the object is moving with a constant velocity.