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Newton's laws of motionIB MYP Sciences: Flashcards

What these 12 flashcards ask

  • State Newton's first law.
  • What is inertia?
  • State Newton's second law as an equation.
  • What are the units in F = ma?
  • State Newton's third law.
  • Do the two forces in a third-law pair cancel out?
  • What is terminal velocity?
  • Why does a skydiver reach terminal velocity?
  • What happens to the forces when a parachute opens?
  • Why do passengers lurch forward when a car brakes?
  • How does a seat belt protect a passenger?
  • If a force doubles and the mass stays the same, what happens to acceleration?

Exam questions on Newton's laws of motion

  1. A car of mass 1500 kg is waiting at traffic lights in Singapore. When the light turns green, the engine produces a resultant forward force of 4500 N on the car.
    Explain, using Newton's first law, why passengers lurch forward when the car brakes suddenly.2 marks
  2. A skydiver in New Zealand jumps from a plane and falls for some time before opening her parachute. Her weight is 700 N.
    Explain why the skydiver's speed stops increasing before she opens her parachute.2 marks
  3. Lena, a student in Berlin, investigates how the resultant force on a trolley affects its acceleration. The trolley has a mass of 1.0 kg and runs on a low-friction track. She pulls it with different constant forces and measures its acceleration with a data logger. The accelerations are 0.5 m/s² for 0.5 N, 1.0 m/s² for 1.0 N, 1.6 m/s² for 1.5 N, 2.0 m/s² for 2.0 N and 2.5 m/s² for 2.5 N.
    State a testable hypothesis for this investigation, with a scientific reason, and identify one variable that Lena must control.3 marks
See the full worksheet

Written by the Exaim team, led by Shaun Daswani (Head of Upper Secondary, Improve ME Institute; MSc Financial Mathematics, Imperial College London; BSc, UCL) and Jason Daswani (operational lead, Improve ME Institute; LSE).