Newton's 2nd Law: F=ma - Does Object A Feel Force?

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter udar subedi
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Law Motion Second law
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
Sign up Log in
4 replies · 3K views
udar subedi
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
in the Newtons second law of motion we study "F=ma" letters having their usual meanings.
so if any object say"A" comes in the way of a huge object "B", moving with a constant velocity; a=0, doesn't the object "a" feel any force upon him?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
When two objects collide, they are in contact for a while. At that time they exert a force on one another and they will accelerate (that is, one will decelerate and the other will accelerate, so in the end the moving one will go slower and the stationary one will be moving = going faster). The amount of time for which they are in contact is usually very short though. Also, we hardly ever need to know exactly how long it is, as problems involving colliding objects can usually be solved by looking at the (kinetic) energies before and after the collision.

Was that your question?
 
udar subedi said:
if any object say"A" comes in the way of a huge object "B", moving with a constant velocity; a=0, doesn't the object "a" feel any force upon him?

Object A will feel an effective force which is approximately equal to m*v/t

where,

m = mass of object B
v = velocity of object B
t = time of contact
 
that is pretty much an answer i had presumed.
But,force being a vector quantity has its effect in the direction in which an object accelerates. in the case, when "A" hits "B", "A" accelerates in opp. direction to "B", giving raise to a force in backward direction(the direction from which it is coming). Now how come "B" eperiences force and starts moving along with "A"?
 
The answer to your question is perhaps Newton's third law? Action - reaction