We have discussed Newton’s three laws of motion in other three articles. We get the definition of force from Newton’s first law of motion and the formula or the equation of force was derived from Newton’s second law of motion. Again, the third law gives an idea for the law of conservation of linear momentum. In this article, I’m going to discuss the definition, formula, units, dimension, types, and equations for force in classical physics.
Contents of this article:
- Definition of force
- What is the formula for force?
- Unit of force
- Dimension of force
- How many forces are there?
- Equations for force in physics
Definition of force
Force is an external agent that is used to break the existing inertia (rest or motion) of a body. That means the applied force can make a resting body in motion and can increase the velocity of a moving body. But, every force cannot move a rested body. We need to apply a sufficient amount of force to do so.
What is the formula for Force?
Newton’s second law of motion gives the formula of force. According to this law, if a force F can provide an acceleration a to an object of mass m, then the equation of the force is,
F = ma…….(1)
That means, Force = Mass × Acceleration.
This is the basic formula of force. But, there are different forms of force equations in different cases. We have mentioned those below.
Unit of Force
The SI unit of Force is Newton (N) and the CGS unit of Force is dyne.
1 N = 105 dyne.
Dimension of Force
The dimensional formula of Force is [MLT-2]. One can derive this dimension of force from the equation-(1). This is simply the multiplication between the dimensions of mass and acceleration.
How many Forces are there?
There are four fundamental forces in the universe. These are –
- Gravitational Force
- Electromagnetic Force
- Strong Force
- Weak Force
Other forces are friction force, Tension force, Pulling force, Pushing force, centripetal force, etc. But these are not the fundamental forces.
Equations for Force in Physics
A strong force and a weak force do not have any equations. But the Gravitational force, Electromagnetic force and other forms of these have definite equations. Popular equations of different types of forces are listed below.
Equation of Gravitational Force
If r is the distance between two point masses m1 and m2 then the Gravitational attraction force acting between the masses is
\color{Blue}F_{g} = G.\frac{m_{1}.m_{2}}{r^{2}}……..(2)
Where G is the universal gravitational constant.
Equations of Electromagnetic Force
- If a point charge q is placed in an external electric field E, then the electrostatic force on that charge is F = qE. This is the Lorentz force equation in an electric field. Scientist Coulomb gives another form of this electrostatic force as, \color{Blue}F_{e} = k.\frac{q_{1}.q_{2}}{r^{2}}. This is the electrostatic force between two point charges q1 and q2 separated by a distance r. Here, k is the coulomb’s constant.
- If a point charge q is moving with a speed v in an external magnetic field B, then the Lorentz equation of magnetic force on the moving charge is, \color{Blue}F_{B} = qvBsin\theta.
Equation of friction force
The equation of friction force is, \color{Blue}F_{f} = \mu.N.
Where \color{Blue}\mu is the coefficient of friction and N is the normal reaction on the object. Here is a full article on Friction force.
Equation for centripetal force
If an object of mass m is moving in a circular path of radius r with a speed v, then the centripetal force and centrifugal force acting on the object is, \color{Blue}F_{c} = \frac{mv^{2}}{r}
This is all from this article on equations of force in physics. If you have any doubts on this topic you can ask me in the comment section.
Thank you!
Related posts:
- Contact Forces
- Friction Force and its formula
- Newton’s 2nd law of motion
- How to find Tension force in a string?
- Momentum and Impulse
2 thoughts on “Equations for Force in Physics | definition formula unit”
Comments are closed.