Go to content
Newton's law states that F=ma.

F stands for the resultant force, in Newtons, acting on a particle,
m is the mass in kilograms of the particle
a is the acceleration in m/sē produced.

Newton's law can be applied in force diagrams to find various forces acting on a particle.
Change
 Steps  
All
Change
 Steps  
All
O
O
O
O
    
+
r
-
    

Summary/Background

MathsNet imageSir Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 - 31 March 1727) was the greatest English mathematician of his generation. He laid the foundation for differential and integral calculus. His work on optics and gravitation make him one of the greatest scientists the world has known.
Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws which provide relationships between the forces acting on a body and the motion of the body, first compiled by Sir Isaac Newton. Newton's laws were first published together in his work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). The Principia is recognised as the greatest scientific book ever written. Newton analysed the motion of bodies in resisting and non-resisting media under the action of centripetal forces. The results were applied to orbiting bodies, projectiles, pendulums, and free-fall near the Earth. He further demonstrated that the planets were attracted toward the Sun by a force varying as the inverse square of the distance and generalised that all heavenly bodies mutually attract one another.

The laws form the basis for classical mechanics.
  1. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
  2. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.
  3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Software/Applets used on this page

jsMath
This page uses jsMath
You can get a better display of the maths by downloading special TeX fonts from jsMath. In the meantime, we will do the best we can with the fonts you have, but it may not be pretty and some equations may not be rendered correctly.

This question appears in the following syllabi:

SyllabusModuleSectionTopicExam Year
AQA A-Level (UK - Pre-2017)M1DynamicsNewton's Laws-
AQA AS Maths 2017MechanicsForces and Newton's LawsNewton's Laws-
AQA AS/A2 Maths 2017MechanicsForces and Newton's LawsNewton's Laws-
CCEA A-Level (NI)M1DynamicsNewton's Laws-
CIE A-Level (UK)M1DynamicsNewton's Laws-
Edexcel A-Level (UK - Pre-2017)M1DynamicsNewton's Laws-
Edexcel AS Maths 2017MechanicsForces and Newton's LawsNewton's Laws-
Edexcel AS/A2 Maths 2017MechanicsForces and Newton's LawsNewton's Laws-
OCR A-Level (UK - Pre-2017)M1DynamicsNewton's Laws-
OCR AS Maths 2017MechanicsForces and Newton's LawsNewton's Laws-
OCR MEI AS Maths 2017MechanicsForces and Newton's LawsNewton's Laws-
OCR-MEI A-Level (UK - Pre-2017)M1DynamicsNewton's Laws-
Pre-U A-Level (UK)MechDynamicsNewton's Laws-
Universal (all site questions)DDynamicsNewton's Laws-
WJEC A-Level (Wales)M1DynamicsNewton's Laws-