Physics
Unit 1 week 1
Newtons 1st law
Key Terms

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


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Newtons 1st lawMetric system
Mass
Time
Force
Acceleration
Δ
Old ones…
 Unit
 Vector
 Sig. Fig.
Lesson Objective
 All
of the Students will be able to describe
Newtons 1st law of motion by solving an
inertia problem on an exit ticket with
minimum 2 out of 2 questions correctly.
You will be successful if…
 Make
a checklist of the following items
and check yourself off during the lesson.
 You can use the metric system to describe
an objects motion.
 You can explain Newtons first law
 You can use Newtons 1st law to describe
why a car in a head on collision stops.
Were going to use the metric
system
1
meter is our base unit.
 1000 meters= 1 kilometer (km)
1

meters= 1
100
1

meters =
1000
 This
centimeter (cm)
1 millimeter (mm)
will be our base unit for
measurement in physics.
 Time is measured in seconds. (s)
Fun fact, 1 meter
is around
3.2 feet. Or 39
inches long
Introduction
 Newtons
1st Law-An object at rest stays at
rest and an object in motion stays in
motion with the same speed and in the
same direction unless acted on by an
unbalanced force.
 Umm…What
(stay tuned)
does that mean?
Diving in
 What
does that mean, I need two
volunteers… Come up and push on
eachtother with an equal force…
 Did anyone move?
 Now
we need a 3rd person- come up
and push on them in the middle
 This one is the 3rd person.
Fun video or picture
describing subject
 Newtons
1st law video
Deep

Force- A force is a push or a pull. It is a
force that started everything in the Big
Bang. BUUUUTTTT. In order to describe
that, we need to start somewhere else…
Position
X
marks the spot right?
 Displacement is the distance between
you and that treasure. We write this in
physics as
 Δ𝑥 it represents the distance between 2
points.
 Δ is short for saying (final – initial)
 If my initial point is 0, and I end 2 miles
away, what was my Δ𝑥?
 Lets try one!
Find Δ𝑥 𝑖𝑓 you started at point
0 and ended 2 miles away.
 Show
your work
 What was the final x value?
 What was the initial x value?
Ok- Next up!
 In
order to move from point a to point b,
you have to, well, move, right?
 In physics, we don’t care about speed
because we don’t know which way its
going. We only are about 𝒗 velocity,
which is written with a 𝒗. A change in
velocity is written as Δ𝑣.
 We
define this as Δ𝑣 =
Δ𝑥
𝑡
Check
A car was stopped at a light, it turned green
and 4 seconds later was driving 20 miles per
hour (mph). What was itsΔ𝑣?

A car had a displacement Δx of 20 meters in 5
seconds. What was its average velocity?
(give the answer in meters/second m/s)
Rate yourself 3 I got this
2 eeehhhh….
1 Zzzzzzz….(sleeping, I’m lost)

Fun vid or sample vid Velocity
 Now,
like in the car example from before,
if we can change our velocity
Δ𝑣, something must be changing it…
 Enter
a acceleration!
Deep
 Acceleration
measures how fast our
velocity is changing. We define this as
𝑎
=
Δ𝑣
Δ𝑡
 Where
t represents time
 V represents velocity
 a represents acceleration
Your turn Find
the acceleration if a car accelerates
from v=0 to v= 10 m/s and does so in 5
seconds.
 Given-
What were you given?
 Find- what are you trying to find?
 Solution Conclusion- What does acceleration
mean to you?
mass
 Mass
is measured in kg (kilograms).
Weight is different than mass. Your mass
doesn’t change, no matter if you were on
the moon, mars, pluto, or earth…. So what
changed?
Explaining weight on different
planets
Finally- Force!
Like the two people pushing each other, if they are
pushing with equal force, what do you think will happen?
WWE clip-So obviously most
forces ARE NOT balanced
Vectors
 Force
is a vector, it has a direction. Since
life rarely has balanced forces, we need a
way to measure them. To do this, we use
vector addition.
 Example-
Wipeout video clip and
problem
Supplementary example
A force of 10 newtons going right pushes
against a 5 newton force going left.
Draw both vectors and perform vector
addition.
What is the resultant vector?
What is the resultant force?
Check yourself 1,2,3
Advanced
Students tested a go kart over 3 separate distances to
find its speed and got the following table of data.
What conclusion can you make based on this data?
Is there likely any error?
Graph the data using excel. Can you use this data to
extrapolate how long it will take the go kart to travel 8
meters?
Can you use this chart to determine the go karts
average velocity?
A go kart Displacement
(meters)
Time
(s)
Test 1
4
2
Test2
Test 3
3
6
1.5
3
Lab.
 Design
an experiment.
 As a group. Design an experiment to test
one of the equations given today. You will
need to follow the scientific method and
create a presentation outlining your lab
report.
 You will also create a video that explains
the equation you researched and your
test and how it resulted for our word wall
(so visitors can understand as well).