Normal Forces

Weight (also called force of gravity) is a pervasive force that acts at all times and must be counteracted to keep an object from falling. You definitely notice that you must support the weight of a heavy object by pushing up on it when you hold it stationary, as illustrated in Figure 1(a). But how do inanimate objects like a table support the weight of a mass placed on them, such as shown in Figure 1(b)? When the bag of dog food is placed on the table, the table actually sags slightly under the load. This would be noticeable if the load were placed on a card table, but even rigid objects deform when a force is applied to them. Unless the object is deformed beyond its limit, it will exert a restoring force much like a deformed spring (or trampoline or diving board). The greater the deformation, the greater the restoring force. So when the load is placed on the table, the table sags until the restoring force becomes as large as the weight of the load. At this point the net external force on the load is zero. That is the situation when the load is stationary on the table. The table sags quickly, and the sag is slight so we do not notice it. But it is similar to the sagging of a trampoline when you climb onto it.

We must conclude that whatever supports a load, be it animate or not, must supply an upward force equal to the weight of the load, as we assumed in a few of the previous examples. If the force supporting a load is perpendicular to the surface of contact between the load and its support, this force is defined to be a normal force and here is given the symbol N. (This is not the unit for force N.) The word normal means perpendicular to a surface. The normal force can be less than the object’s weight (for example, if the object is on an incline as you will see in the next example) or it can be larger than the object’s weight (for example, the normal force on a roller-coaster car at the bottom of a loop).

Tension Forces

A tension is a force along the length of a medium, especially a force carried by a flexible medium, such as a rope or cable. The word “tension” comes from a Latin word meaning “to stretch.” Not coincidentally, the flexible cords that carry muscle forces to other parts of the body are called tendons. Any flexible connector, such as a string, rope, chain, wire, or cable, can exert pulls only parallel to its length; thus, a force carried by a flexible connector is a tension with direction parallel to the connector. It is important to understand that tension is a pull in a connector. In contrast, consider the phrase: “You can’t push a rope.” The tension force pulls outward along the two ends of a rope.

Consider a person holding a mass on a rope as shown in Figure 4.

Tension in the rope must equal the weight of the supported mass, as we can prove using Newton’s second law. If the 5.00-kg mass in the figure is stationary, then its acceleration is zero, and thus F_net = 0. The only external forces acting on the mass are its weight w and the tension T supplied by the rope. Thus,

where T and w are the magnitudes of the tension and weight and their signs indicate direction, with up being positive here. Thus, just as you would expect, the tension equals the weight of the supported mass:

For a 5.00-kg mass, then (neglecting the mass of the rope) we see that

If we cut the rope and insert a spring, the spring would extend a length corresponding to a force of 49.0 N, providing a direct observation and measure of the tension force in the rope.

Flexible connectors are often used to transmit forces around corners, such as in a hospital traction system, a finger joint, or a bicycle brake cable. If there is no friction, the tension is transmitted undiminished. Only its direction changes, and it is always parallel to the flexible connector. This is illustrated in Figure 5 (a) and (b).

If we wish to create a very large tension, all we have to do is exert a force perpendicular to a flexible connector, as illustrated in Figure 8. As we saw in the last example, the weight of the tightrope walker acted as a force perpendicular to the rope. We saw that the tension in the roped related to the weight of the tightrope walker in the following way:

We can extend this expression to describe the tension T created when a perpendicular force (F_⊥) is exerted at the middle of a flexible connector:

Note that θ is the angle between the horizontal and the bent connector. In this case, T becomes very large as θ approaches zero. Even the relatively small weight of any flexible connector will cause it to sag, since an infinite tension would result if it were horizontal (i.e., θ = 0 and sinθ = 0). (See Figure 8.)

Spring Forces and Hooke’s Law

Forces can affect an object’s shape. If a bulldozer pushes a car into a wall, the car will not move but it will noticeably change shape. A change in shape due to the application of a force is a deformation. Even very small forces are known to cause some deformation. For small deformations, two important characteristics are observed. First, the object returns to its original shape when the force is removed—that is, the deformation is elastic for small deformations. Second, the size of the deformation is proportional to the force—that is, for small deformations, Hooke’s law is obeyed. In equation form, Hooke’s law is given by

where |F| is the magnitude of the force that produced the amount of deformation ΔL (the change in length, for example), and k is a proportionality constant that depends on the shape and composition of the object and the direction of the force. Note that this force is a function of the deformation ΔL — it is not constant as a kinetic friction force is. Sometimes we use Δx instead of ΔL. The deformation can be along any axis. Rearranging this to

makes it clear that the deformation is proportional to the applied force. Figure 10 shows the Hooke’s law relationship between the extension ΔL of a spring or of a human bone. For metals or springs, the straight line region in which Hooke’s law pertains is much larger. Bones are brittle and the elastic region is small and the fracture abrupt. Eventually a large enough stress to the material will cause it to break or fracture. Tensile strength is the breaking stress that will cause permanent deformation or fracture of a material.

The proportionality constant k depends upon a number of factors for the material. For example, a guitar string made of nylon stretches when it is tightened, and the elongation ΔL is proportional to the force applied (at least for small deformations). Thicker nylon strings and ones made of steel stretch less for the same applied force, implying they have a larger k (see Figure 11). Finally, all three strings return to their normal lengths when the force is removed, provided the deformation is small. Most materials will behave in this manner if the deformation is less than about 0.1% or about 1 part in 10³.

As we have seen, the application of a force can cause the deformation of an object. However, Newton’s Third Law says that the object will also exert a force (called a restoring force). For example, consider the mass and spring system shown in Figure 12. The mass experiences a restoring force (or spring force), which is given by Hooke’s Law. The force is

[latex]{\vec{F}_{{s}} = -k\Delta \vec{x}},[/latex]

where [latex]{\vec{F}_{{s}}}[/latex] is the spring force, k is the spring constant and [latex]{\Delta \vec{x}}[/latex] is the stretch or compression of the spring measured from its unstretched length. Note that the spring force is a vector, where the sign of the force indicates the direction. Likewise, the stretch or compression of the spring is also a vector, and indicates the direction of the stretch or compression. The negative sign in the equation means that the spring forces acts in the opposite direction to the stretch or compression. This relationship between the spring force and the direction of the stretch or compression is shown in Figure 3. In many cases, the stretch or compression will simply be written as x, so the equation of the spring force is written as [latex]{\vec{F}_{{s}} = -kx},[/latex]. However, x still stands for a change in length.

In some applications, it is better to work with the magnitude of the spring force

|F| = k |x|

where |x| is the magnitude of the stretch or compression. To determine the direction of this force, remember that the spring forces acts in the opposite direction to the stretch or compression. This can be useful when determining the direction of the force on a free body diagram that involves a spring force.

Optional: Real Forces and Inertial Frames

There is another distinction among forces in addition to the types already mentioned. Some forces are real, whereas others are not. Real forces are those that have some physical origin, such as the gravitational pull. Contrastingly, fictitious forces are those that arise simply because an observer is in an accelerating frame of reference, such as one that rotates (like a merry-go-round) or undergoes linear acceleration (like a car slowing down). For example, if a satellite is heading due north above Earth’s northern hemisphere, then to an observer on Earth it will appear to experience a force to the west that has no physical origin. Of course, what is happening here is that Earth is rotating toward the east and moves east under the satellite. In Earth’s frame this looks like a westward force on the satellite, or it can be interpreted as a violation of Newton’s first law (the law of inertia). An inertial frame of reference is one in which all forces are real and, equivalently, one in which Newton’s laws have the simple forms given in this chapter.

Earth’s rotation is slow enough that Earth is nearly an inertial frame. You ordinarily must perform precise experiments to observe fictitious forces and the slight departures from Newton’s laws, such as the effect just described. On the large scale, such as for the rotation of weather systems and ocean currents, the effects can be easily observed.

The crucial factor in determining whether a frame of reference is inertial is whether it accelerates or rotates relative to a known inertial frame. Unless stated otherwise, all phenomena discussed in this text are considered in inertial frames.

All the forces discussed in this section are real forces, but there are a number of other real forces, such as lift and thrust, that are not discussed in this section. They are more specialized, and it is not necessary to discuss every type of force. It is natural, however, to ask where the basic simplicity we seek to find in physics is in the long list of forces. Are some more basic than others? Are some different manifestations of the same underlying force? The answer to both questions is yes, as will be seen in the next (extended) section and in the treatment of modern physics later in the text.

PHET EXPLORATIONS: FORCES IN 1 DIMENSION

Explore the forces at work when you try to push a filing cabinet. Create an applied force and see the resulting friction force and total force acting on the cabinet. Charts show the forces, position, velocity, and acceleration vs. time. View a free-body diagram of all the forces (including gravitational and normal forces).