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Forces act in a particular direction and have sizes dependent upon how strong the push or pull is. Because of these characteristics, forces are classified as "vector quantities". This means that forces follow a different set of mathematical rules than physical quantities that do not have direction (denoted scalar quantities).
[12] [13]: 150 The physics concept of force makes quantitative the everyday idea of a push or a pull. Forces in Newtonian mechanics are often due to strings and ropes, friction, muscle effort, gravity, and so forth. Like displacement, velocity, and acceleration, force is a vector quantity.
When forces act upon an object, they change its acceleration. The net force is the combined effect of all the forces on the object's acceleration, as described by Newton's second law of motion. When the net force is applied at a specific point on an object, the associated torque can be calculated.
This toy uses the principles of center of mass to keep balance when sitting on a finger. In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero.
Mechanics (from Ancient Greek μηχανική (mēkhanikḗ) 'of machines') [1] [2] is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. [3] Forces applied to objects may result in displacements, which are changes of an object's position relative to its environment.
Force is the action of one body on another. A force is either a push or a pull, and it tends to move a body in the direction of its action. The action of a force is characterized by its magnitude, by the direction of its action, and by its point of application (or point of contact).
The normal force N is equal, opposite, and collinear to the gravitational force mg so the net force and moment is zero. Consequently, the object is in a state of static mechanical equilibrium. In classical mechanics, a particle is in mechanical equilibrium if the net force on that particle is zero.
Unlike the other two fictitious forces, the centrifugal force always points radially outward from the axis of rotation of the rotating frame, with magnitude , where is the component of the position vector perpendicular to , and unlike the Coriolis force in particular, it is independent of the motion of the particle in the rotating frame.