Newton's Third Law and an introduction to Friction

Today we will spend some time on Newton's Third Law. It's easy to misunderstand this principle, so we'll do an experiment which should make things clear.

• Newton's Third Law: Predictions
• Newton's Third Law: Measurements
  • I'll set up some force sensors at the front of the class and project their readings as we simulate the two situations

Most real-life situations involving forces suffer from a complication: friction, which acts to hinder one object from sliding across another. Fortunately, we can use a simple model of friction to calculate its effects to reasonable accuracy.

• How physicists describe friction
• Measuring some coefficients of friction

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.