Download NEWTON`S FIRST LAW

NEWTON’S THREE LAWS & MOMENTUM POSTER
Directions: You can draw your pictures in the blank space below and on the back of this
page or on a separate sheet of paper. Colored accurate pictures earn the highest grade!
I. Newton’s First Law is the Law of Inertia. Inertia is defined as an objects resistance to
a change in its state of motion. There are thus 2 states of Inertia: in motion, or at rest
(stationary, or not in motion). Below, draw 2 colored pictures of inertia examples. Draw
an object in motion and an object at rest. Write Newton’s first law above each picture
and write whether the forces are balanced or unbalanced in each picture. Examples you
could draw: a rocket on the launch pad, a rocket blasting off, a car parked, a car moving.
II. Next, draw a picture illustrating Newton’s Second Law. Newton’s Second Law is:
F=ma (Force = mass times acceleration)
Write the law above your drawing, and draw a colored picture of something with mass
(kg) accelerating (m/s2) which has Force (N). Examples you could draw: a decelerating
train hits something on the train tracks, a decelerating car smashes into a wall, etc. Draw
arrows to the mass (kg), acceleration (m/s2), and Force (N) in your picture. Other
examples of force are a baseball hitting a glove, a comet striking the earth, or a rock
rolling down a hill and hitting the ground. You could also draw how a bullet has very
little mass, but it has so much momentum that when it decelerates it causes great damage.
III. Now draw a picture illustrating Newton’s Third Law. Newton’s third law is for
every action force there is an equal and opposite reaction force. Write the third law
above your picture. You should draw one object hitting another object with an action
force and the other object hitting back with a equal and opposite reaction force. Use
arrows to illustrate the forces. Examples you could draw might include a hammer hitting
a nail, a baseball bat hitting a baseball, a shoe pushing off the ground as a person is
walking, or a car smashing into a wall (think about what happens to the car!).
IV. Finally draw an object in motion and indicate its momentum. Write the formula for
momentum above the drawing. Momentum = kg x m/s. Label your object’s mass and
its velocity, and give it direction. For example you could draw a comet with a labeled
mass of 1012 kg hurtling through space with a labeled velocity of 109 m/s with a direction
toward the Sun. Remember that most objects are continuously speeding up, slowing
down or changing direction, hence they are under nearly constant acceleration (m/s2), but
Newton thought of freezing a moving object in time and thinking about its exact speed
(m/s) in that split second!