Newton's Second Law of Motion - Unbalanced Forces.
Forces which act along a straight line
can be added if the forces are in the same
direction,
or subtracted if the forces are in the opposite direction.
The force that you
get after adding or subtracting
is called the resultant force.
The resultant force is a single
force which has the same effect
as all the others combined.
In the above example, the
forces are in the same
direction and can be added
producing a resultant force of 10 N
pointing to the left.
This is called an unbalanced force because the resultant force is not
zero.
Newton's Second Law says that
If the forces on an object are unbalanced
then the resultant force will cause the motion
of the object to change.
The bigger the force, the bigger the
change in motion (see also momentum).
A change in motion is called acceleration.
Newton's Second Law gives rise to the equation
F =
m x a
(Force = mass x acceleration).
This equation is important! (continued on the next page).
Headings Forces and
Motion Search Questions 
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