Laws Of Motion Essay

Sir Isaac Newton is the man well known for his discoveries around the term, Motion. He came up with three basic ideas, called Newton’s three laws of motion.

The first law is, “every object in a state uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.” This means if an object at rest tends to stay at rest, then an object that is moving tends to stay moving. So when a force is applied to the rested object, it should start moving, if the force is great enough. This is commonly referred to the, “law of inertia.”

The second law is, “the relationship between an objects mass (m), its acceleration (a), and the applied force (f) is F= ma.” The heavier object requires more force to move an object, the same distance as light object. The equation gives us an exact relationship between Force, mass, and acceleration.

The third law is, “For every action there is an equal and opposite force.” This means that there is a reaction force equal in size, but in opposite direction. So when an object pushes another object it gets pushed back in the opposite direction.

So how do Newton’s laws refer to car safety?

Crumple zones- are a structural feature used in automobiles. They help by absorbing the impact; this is by spreading the impact through parts of the car instead of in the one spot. This reflects back onto law number one, two and three. This is shown when the car hits the object it causes the car to slow down or completely stop (1). The crumble zone would protect the driver because all the energy has been diverted around the car, instead of the one spot. As a result of the cars mass and its acceleration, the force can be calculated (2). When the car crashes it’s most likely that the object w...

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...senger, the passenger is pushed back into the seat (Law 3)

Bull bars- A bull bar is a device attached to the front of the vehicle to minimise the damage caused to passenger in the case of a crash. Bull bars come in all different shapes and sizes depending on needs. If your car was to collide with a kangaroo, the car passengers would feel the thump because the mass of the kangaroo is big enough to cause damage. The car would also slow down naturally without the driver putting their foot on the brake, because the force has either been thrown forward or over the car (law 1 and 3). The bull bar is designed to stop the force from coming in contact with the cars bonnet.

Law two can be used to calculate “the relationship between an objects mass (m), its acceleration (a), and the applied force (f) is F= ma.” This formula is used in all of the above components in the car.