Resultant forces

• What is resultant force?

  A number of forces acting on an object may be replaced by a single force that has the same effect as all the original forces acting together. This single force is known as the resultant force
• What is a free body diagram?

  Free body diagrams show all the forces acting on an isolated object or system

  • The length of the arrow shows us the magnitude
  • The direction of the arrow shows us the direction of the force
• If the resultant force on a stationary object is 0 what will happen?

  The object will remain stationary
• If the resultant force on a moving object is 0 what will happen?

  The object will continue moving at a constant velocity
• If the resultant force on an object is non-zero what could happen(5)?

  1. Start moving
  2. Stops moving
  3. Accelerates
  4. Decelerates
  5. change direction
• Acceleration?


  The vehicle will accelerate towrds the direction of the resultant force causing an increase in velocity
• What does it mean for an object to be in equilibrium?

  Have a resulatant force of 0N