June 2026
Beginner to intermediate
334 pages
8h 54m
English
A force can make something move faster, as happens when we throw a ball or push a swing. (As one of Newton’s Laws puts it, force is mass times acceleration.) Forces also slow down objects. In this chapter, we start analyzing forces by investigating situations where several forces balance out. To develop intuition, we will do experiments with frictional forces as well as the force needed to stretch a spring.
If you have ever tried to get a large piece of furniture to start sliding on a rug, you have encountered static friction, the force that resists starting to move an object. We can learn quite a bit by finding what it takes to overcome it and start various objects moving down an inclined plane. Similarly, ...
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