It can be difficult to make an object move,
but once it is moving, it will go on moving
until something stops it. Force is needed
to start something moving, make it move
faster, and make it stop.
Forces and motion
Newton’s second law
The bigger the force and the lighter the object,
the greater the acceleration. A professional
cyclist with a lightweight bike will accelerate
faster than a normal person cycling to work.
How fast can a skydiver fall?
Science and technology
Forces make
things accelerate.
The force is
created by
the cyclist’s
powerful legs.
Newton’s laws of motion
In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton worked out
three important rules that explain how
forces make things move. They have
become the foundation of physics and
work for just about everything, from
footballs to frogs.
Newton’s first law
An object stays still if it isn’t being
pushed or pulled by a force, or it
keeps moving in a straight line at
a constant speed.
Newton’s third law
Every action has an equal and opposite
reaction. The leaf moves away as the
frog leaps in the opposite direction.
The football
would stay still
if the footballer
didn’t kick it.
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