Forces

In my Physics class, we are learning about Force and Newton’s Laws.

I’ve learned quite a bit about the difference between speed, velocity, acceleration. Speed is distance/time (measured in m/sec: how far one travels a meter in 1 sec or whatever unit of distance and time specified specified. It is a scalar), Velocity is speed with direction (so it is a vector; has both direction and magnitude), and acceleration is the rate of change of velocity (it is a vector, and measured in m/sec^2. So acceleration is the change in m/sec/sec).

I’ve also learned the difference between mass and weight; mass is the total substance in a body (measured in KG/lb, and it is a scalar; only has magnitude), while weight is a force which is measured in Newtons. It is how hard gravity pulls on an object.

I will create a function that calculates Force in Newtons given Mass and Acceleration. This is Newton’s second law of motion F = m*a where, F is the force, m is the mass and a is the acceleration.

#The function
ForceEquation <- function(mass, acceleration) {
  
  F = mass*acceleration
  return(F)
}

#Call the function ForceEquation with mass 6 Kg, and acceleration @ 22 m/sec^2
ForceEquation(6, 22)

## [1] 132

Using the same second law of motion equation, I can calculate the mass M.

MassEquation <- function(force, gravity_a) {
  
 M = force/gravity_a 
  return(M)
}

#Call the MassEquation Function with Force 196 Newtons, and gravitational acceleration at 9.8m/sec^2
MassEquation(196, 9.8)

## [1] 20

Tara Kenner