Force Definitions

Definitions

A Force is a push or pull that is acted on an object, by another object causing the object of a certain mass to change from a position of rest to a position of movement, resulting in a change of velocity, causing an acceleration of the object.

The Gravitational Force is an attractive force that is caused by the pulling of masses of particles regardless of what distnace they are from each other toward each other.

Newton's Law for Universal Gravitation states that every particle in the universe attracts every other particle with a force that is proportional to the product of the masses of the particles, but inversely proportional to the square distance between the particle's centers.

The Electrostatic Force is an attractive and reulsive force, that is present in an electric field, that is caused by the charges and distances between particles.

Coulomb's Law states that the magnitude of the attractive and repulsive electrostatic force between particles is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of their charges and inversely proportional to the squared distance between them.

The Spring Force is a force that is found in elastic materials such as a spring. The force acts on a object that is at a position of equilibrium, and when acted upon the object, it stretches or compresses the object from equilibrium. When released, the object starts to move back and forth in periodic motion until it goes back to the original position of equilibrium. This makes the spring force a restoring.

A Restoring Force is a force where an object undergoes a stretch or compression, and after a few oscillations, the object returns to its previous neutral position of equilibrium.

Hooke's Law which is also know as the law of elasticity, states that for relatvively small deformations on an object, the displacement of the deformation is directly proportional to the deforming force.

The Centripetal Force is a force that makes an object follow a curved path. The direction of the force is always orthogonal (perpendicular) to the motion of the object undergoing the curved motion. The force would be facing towards the fixed (imaginary) center point of the curvature of the path.

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