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The forces acting on a body add as vectors, and so the total force on a body depends upon both the magnitudes and the directions of the individual forces. [23]: 58 When the net force on a body is equal to zero, then by Newton's second law, the body does not accelerate, and it is said to be in mechanical equilibrium.
The case of any number of forces acting on the same object is covered by considering the sum of all forces. A possible cause of this problem is that the third law is often stated in an abbreviated form: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, [8] without the details, namely that these forces act on two different objects ...
A force (), dependent on time , acting on a body of assumed constant mass for a time interval [,] generates a change in the body’s momentum () = (), where () is the resulting change in velocity. The change in momentum, termed an impulse and denoted by j ∈ R 3 {\displaystyle \mathbf {j} \in \mathbb {R} ^{3}} is thus computed as
In a two-body rotation, such as a planet and moon rotating about their common center of mass or barycentre, the forces on both bodies are centripetal. In that case, the reaction to the centripetal force of the planet on the moon is the centripetal force of the moon on the planet. [6]
In physics, action is a scalar quantity that describes how the balance of kinetic versus potential energy of a physical system changes with trajectory. Action is significant because it is an input to the principle of stationary action, an approach to classical mechanics that is simpler for multiple objects. [1]
The microscopic origin of contact forces is diverse. Normal force is directly a result of Pauli exclusion principle and not a true force per se: Everyday objects do not actually touch each other; rather, contact forces are the result of the interactions of the electrons at or near the surfaces of the objects. [1]
Tension (as a transmitted force, as an action-reaction pair of forces, or as a restoring force) is measured in newtons in the International System of Units (or pounds-force in Imperial units). The ends of a string or other object transmitting tension will exert forces on the objects to which the string or rod is connected, in the direction of ...
Action at a distance also acts as a model explaining physical phenomena even in the presence of other models. Again in the case of gravity, hypothesizing an instantaneous force between masses allows the return time of comets to be predicted as well as predicting the existence of previously unknown planets, like Neptune.