FORCES

YEAR 7 SCIENCE
AB 7.1 Knowledge preview
 7K Identifying forces - What is a force?
What is a Force?
A force is…

a push a pull

a twist
You cannot see a force.
But you can feel a force and see the effect of the force.

Forces make things happen or stop them from happening.

Name 5 ways in which you have used a force today.
 7K Identifying forces – Effects of a force
What forces do?
Forces can affect things in 3 ways. Can you name them?

Effect 1. A force can change

the shape of an object.

Effect 2. A force can change

the speed of an object,
making it faster or slower.

Effect 3. A force can change

the direction of an object.
AB 7.2 What can forces do
What forces do?
• A force can start something moving or speed it
up.
• A force can stop a motion or slow it down.
• When something changes its speed (whether
moves faster or slower), we say that it
accelerates or undergoes acceleration.
• Sometimes when something slows down, we say
that it decelerates or undergoes deceleration,
however, acceleration can either be positive or
negative hence it includes deceleration as well.
Unit of Force
• Force is measured in a unit called the newton (symbol N).
• This unit is named after the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727).
Measuring Forces
• A spring balance can be used to measure a
force. The larger the pulling force, the more the
spring is stretched and the higher the reading
on the scale.
[Prac] Measuring Forces using a Spring Balance
• Aim: To determine the gravitational force on Earth using spring balance
• Materials: spring balance, masses
• Procedure: 1. Hang a 100g mass on the spring balance and measure the force.
2. Increase the mass by 100g and measure the force every time.
3. Repeat Step 2 until you can no longer add more masses.
4. Construct a line-of-best-fit using the results.
• Results: Mass (g) Force (N)
100
200
300
400
…
Representing Forces
• A force is often represented using arrows.
• The direction of the arrow shows the direction of the force.
• The length of the arrow indicates the relative size of the force.
Balanced Forces
• The forces acting on an object can be balanced or unbalanced.
• Balanced forces do not change the motion of an object. This means the object
will either stay at rest or continue moving at the same speed without changing
directions.
 7K Friction – Thrust and drag forces
What forces are acting on a racing car travelling at a constant speed?
Drag forces oppose the thrust force A thrust force makes the car move forward.
and slow the car. Where does this force come from?
Where are these frictional forces?

drag thrust

The friction of the tyres on The friction of air against the body of the
the road opposes movement car also opposes the car’s movement.
of the car. This type of friction is called
air resistance.
 7K Friction – Thrust and drag forces

When the thrust and drag forces are balanced, the car travels at a
constant speed.

drag thrust

What happens to the speed of the car when the thrust and drag
forces are unbalanced?
Unbalanced Forces
• When an object is exerted with unbalanced forces, its motion will change.
• Such changes in motion will always occur in the direction of the unbalanced
force.
• Unbalanced forces will make an object:
➢ to start moving
➢ speed up
➢ slow down
➢ to come to a stop
➢ to change direction
Unbalanced Forces Arrows (in this case red arrows) representing
forces acting on the mass (in this case, the
person on a bike), need to leave the centre of
mass in the direction that it is exerted, the
length of each arrow indicating its relative
size.

Black dots represent

the ‘centre of mass’.
Inertia
• Inertia can be described as the tendency of any physical object to resist any
change in motion.
• This means that any physical object in motion tends to stay in motion and any
object at rest tends to stay at rest.
• Therefore, a moving object will continue moving in the same direction with the
same speed, and an object at rest will remain at rest, unless some unbalanced
force acts on it.
Inertia
Inertia and Mass https://youtu.be/YbWjx3LUc0U

• Inertia varies with mass. Mass solely depends upon the inertia of an object. The
more inertia that an object has, the more mass that it has. A more massive object
has greater inertia which means that it has greater tendency to resist changes in
its state of motion.
Inertia – Example 1
Your schoolbag left on the
floor will stay as you left it
and remain unchanged
unless it is acted upon an
unbalanced force (such as
lifting, pushing, pulling).
Inertia – Example 2
An astronaut in outer space
will continue drifting in the
same direction at the same
speed indefinitely, until acted
upon by an outside force.
Inertia – Example 3
If you’re driving at 65 km/h and have an accident, your car
may come to a stop in an instant, while your body is still
moving at 65 km/h. Without a seatbelt, your inertia could carry
you through the windshield.
(p. 285)
(p. 285)

Motion – ball rolling gravity

down the ramp
Motion – hair attracted to Friction
the balloon
Motion – paperclip Magnetic force
attracted to magnet
Motion – ball bounces Gravity – ball drops down
upwards Elasticity of the ball
Your breath
Motion – ball rolls

Motion – water moves

Your breath
around

Motion – pencil case moves Movement of the ruler

Shape – plasticine Movement of your hand

changes shape
Shape – water ripples or Removal of balloon
changes shape
(p. 285)
(p. 287)

Also draw a line-of-best-fit to show the length of spring

as the mass hanging increases.
Use the graph to predict a mass of one object.
Tasks
• Activity Book
7.1 7.2 7.5
• 7.1 Unit Review (pp.283 – 284)
Q1 – 14
Contact and
non-contact forces
Types of Forces – Contact forces
• Many examples of forces that affect our daily lives can be classified as either a
contact force or a non-contact force.
• Often forces can act between two objects that are in contact with one another.
• Examples: your hand pulling your shoelaces
your hand unscrewing the bottle cap
your schoolbag pulling down on your shoulders
• Other examples of contact forces include friction and buoyancy.
Types of Forces – Non-contact forces
• Forces can occur between two objects that are not touching each other are
called non-contact forces.
• Like all other forces, non-contact forces can still affect the motion of an object.
• Examples:
➢ Gravity: force pulling on an apple from the Earth when it drops from a tree
➢ Magnetic forces: act between two or more magnets or between magnets and some
metals, such as iron, nickel and cobalt
➢ Electrostatic forces: cause your hair to stand on end immediately after you pull of a
sweater or when you jump on a trampoline
Contact forces – Friction
• Friction is a contact force that occurs between any surfaces that are in contact
and sliding or attempting to slide, over one another.
• Friction opposes the movement of the object.
• Friction forces depend on:
• how rough the surfaces in contact are
• how hard the surfaces are pushed together.
• Friction forces are high if the surfaces in contact are rough and the weight of a
sliding object is great.
• Friction creates heat.
• Examples: tyres of bike and the ground as it moves
air drag on a fast-moving car
fluid friction on a motor boat travelling through water
 [Prac] Friction and Mass
• Aim: To investigate how increasing mass affects the size of friction.
• Hypothesis: Answer the question in the textbook to write your hypothesis.
• Materials: wooden blocks, masses, spring balance
• Procedure: Refer to Pearson 7 page 294.
• Results:
Contact forces – Friction
Using Friction – useful
• At other times friction can be useful. For example:
➢ when we walk, we need friction between our feet and the ground
➢ friction between a tyre and the road is needed to start the car moving
➢ opening the door using handles require friction
Prac 7.2.2 Reducing friction
Graph the data and discuss what type of graph is required for 7.2.1 and for 7.2.2
Reducing Friction - unwanted
• At times friction can be unwanted. For example:
➢ sliding heavy object across a surface
➢ swimmers overcoming the drag of the water
➢ engine parts rub together which causes it to overheat
➢ racing cars travelling through the air (i.e. air resistance)
Reducing Friction
• Reducing friction makes machines more efficient, cheaper to run and longer lasting.
Tasks
• Activity Book
7.3 7.4 7.7
• 7.2 Unit Review (pp.292 – 293)
Q1 – 16
Types of Forces – Non-contact forces
• Forces can occur between two objects that are not touching each other are
called non-contact forces.
• Like all other forces, non-contact forces can still affect the motion of an object.
• Examples:
➢ Gravity: force pulling on an apple from the Earth when it drops from a tree
➢ Magnetic forces: act between two or more magnets or between magnets and some
metals, such as iron, nickel and cobalt
➢ Electrostatic forces: cause your hair to stand on end immediately after you pull of a
sweater or when you jump on a trampoline
 [Prac] Look out below!
• Aim: To investigate if heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones.
• Hypothesis: Write your hypothesis.
• Materials: metre ruler, a number of (at least 5) unbreakable objects of different size, 50 g
mass, electronic balance, Blu Tack, phone (for recording), a sheet of A4 paper
• Procedure:
1. Construct a result table as shown below.
2. Measure the mass of each object and record them in the table.
3. Predict the result for each object to fill the table.
4. Mark a 2 metre height on a wall using Blu Tack.
5. Drop the 50 g mass and another item from the height marked on the wall.
6. Record each scene with your phone to accurately observe whether or not each object has
reached the ground at the same time as the 50 g mass.
7. Drop the 50 g mass and the sheet of A4 paper held horizontally and record your result.
8. Crumple the sheet of paper into the tightest ball and do the test again.
 [Prac] Look out below!
• Results:

A4 paper
A4 paper
(crumpled)
[Prac] Look out below!

Homework
Share the results in your
group.
• Answer the ‘Practical
Review’ questions for this
prac.
• Activity Book: 7.4
Gravity
• All objects attract each other. Gravity is this force of attraction. All objects exert a
force of gravity on all other objects in the universe. This means that all objects
pull towards each other.
• The more mass a pair of objects have, the stronger the pulling force of gravity
between them.
• As a result, you are pulled strongly towards the Earth and the Earth is pulled
strongly towards you. However because the Earth’s mass is much larger than
yours, the pull you exert on it is barely noticeable whereas you can definitely feel
its pull.
• In comparison you and the schoolbag that you are wearing have a smaller mass,
so the force between you and your bag is very small.
Mass, Gravity and Weight
 Gravitational Fields and Force Field
• If you throw a ball into the air, you
know it will fall back to Earth.
• If an object lies within a region called
the Earth’s gravitational field, then a
gravitational force will act upon it. This
region is called a force field.
• More specifically, a force field is a field
where a non-contact force acts on an
object. Hence non-contact forces such
as gravitational, magnetic and
electrostatic forces all have a force
field, and various object will be acted
upon these forces if they are placed
within this force field.
Falling
• For many centuries, people believed
that heavier things fell faster than
lighter ones.
• Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)
performed experiments and realised
that the reason some things fell faster
than others was because they had a
smaller surface area than other
things.
• An object with a small surface area
experiences less air resistance
compared to an object with a larger
surface area.
• If there was no air, any two objects
would fall at the same rate.
Hammer vs feather drop on the Moon.
Falling
Galileo's Famous Gravity Experiment | Brian Cox |
BBC Two

https://youtu.be/QyeF-_QPSbk
Mass, Gravity and Weight
• Mass is the amount of matter in an object.
Your mass remains the same if you travel to
other planets with different gravity. The SI
unit for mass is kilograms (kg) but it can be
measures in other units such as grams (g) and
tonnes (t) etc.
• Weight is the name given to the pulling force
of gravity on an object. Because it is a force,
weight is measured in newtons (N).
• Weight depends on both the mass and the
strength of the gravitational field of the
planet.
Mass and weight
Mathematically:

Weight Force = mass x gravity

Terminal Velocity
• As an object’s speed increases, its
air resistance also increases. As a
falling object increases its speed,
the air resistance also increases as
it falls.
• Eventually the air resistance acting
on the object equals its weight
force. When this happens, the
forces acting on the object are
balanced and the object then falls
at a constant speed.
• This speed is called terminal
velocity.
Terminal Velocity
• Opening a parachute provides a much larger surface area, which greatly increases
the air resistance which slows the skydiver down.
Reducing Impact Force
• A properly fitted helmet, mouthguard
and elbow, wrist and knee pads reduce
the size of impact forces by absorbing
some of the impact force in a collision.
This reduces the risk of serious injury.
• Running shoes are designed to cushion
the toe and heel to absorb the impact
force as well as to spread the force over
a larger area of the sole of the foot.
Car Safety Features
• When a car stops suddenly, its
passengers continue to move forward
(due to inertia) until they hit
something that stops them
• Seatbelt is the simplest way of
preventing serious injury. It holds you
in place during a collision and
minimises the impact forces on you by
spreading them across your chest.
• Airbags and front and rear crumple
zones also reduce impact forces upon
collision.
Tasks
• Activity Book
7.6
• 7.2 Unit Review (pp.292 – 293)
Q1 – 16
• 7.3 Unit Review (pp.301 – 302)
Q1 – 15