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Physics Definitions for Students

This document defines 41 physics terms related to forces and motion including: acceleration, braking distance, center of gravity, density, displacement, drag force, efficiency, elastic deformation, free fall, Hooke's law, kinetic energy, mass, momentum, Newton's laws of motion, plastic deformation, potential energy, power, pressure, projectile motion, scalar and vector quantities, speed, stopping distance, stress, strain, terminal velocity, thinking distance, torque, weight, work, and Young's modulus.

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302 views1 page

Physics Definitions for Students

This document defines 41 physics terms related to forces and motion including: acceleration, braking distance, center of gravity, density, displacement, drag force, efficiency, elastic deformation, free fall, Hooke's law, kinetic energy, mass, momentum, Newton's laws of motion, plastic deformation, potential energy, power, pressure, projectile motion, scalar and vector quantities, speed, stopping distance, stress, strain, terminal velocity, thinking distance, torque, weight, work, and Young's modulus.

Uploaded by

noyakzz24
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

OCR Physics – Forces and Motion (2821) Definitions

1. Acceleration – rate of change of velocity with time


2. Braking distance – distance travelled by a vehicle while the brakes are applied before it
comes to rest
3. Brittle – shows very little plastic deformation, i.e. it snaps (e.g. ceramics)
4. Centre of gravity – point where the weight of a body acts
5. Couple – pair of equal and opposite parallel forces tending to produce rotation
6. Density – mass per unit volume
7. Displacement – distance in a given direction
8. Drag force – resistive force opposing motion and in the opposite direction to velocity
9. Ductile – shows large plastic deformation, i.e. stretches easily and can be drawn into
wires (e.g. metals)
10. Efficiency – the ratio of the work done by a machine to the energy supplied to it
11. Elastic deformation – material (i.e. wire) returns to its original length when the stress
(i.e. load) is removed
12. Elastic limit – point beyond which a wire is permanently stretched
13. Equilibrium – no resultant force and no resultant moment
14. Free fall – the motion of an object undergoing an acceleration of 'g'
15. Hooke's Law = force directly proportional to extension within the elastic region
16. Kinetic energy = the energy of an object due to its motion
17. Mass – the property of a body which resists change in motion
18. Moment (of a force about a point) = force x perpendicular distance from pivot
19. Motive force – forward driving force produced by the engine
20. Motive power – rate at which it transfers energy to the car
21. Newton = force which gives a mass of 1kg an acceleration of 1ms=2
22. Newton's 1st Law = an object remains at rest or in uniform motion unless acted upon by
an external force
23. Newton's 2nd Law = the rate of change of momentum is proportional to the force and is
in the direction of the force
24. Newton's 3rd Law = every action has an equal and opposite reaction
25. Plastic deformation = material (i.e. wire) does not return to its original length when the
stress (i.e. load) is removed
26. Potential energy = the energy of an object due to its position
27. Power = rate of doing work (rate of transfer of energy)
28. Pressure – force per unit area of cross=section (force is perpendicular to the surface)
29. Projectile – horizontal velocity remains constant whereas vertical velocity is uniformly
accelerated due to gravity
30. Scalar – magnitude but no direction (e.g. time, speed, distance, mass, energy)
31. Speed – rate of change of distance with time
32. stopping distance = thinking distance + braking distance
33. Strain= extension per unit length
34. Stress – force per unit area of cross=section
35. Terminal velocity – the maximum speed reached by an object when the drag force on it
is equal and opposite to the force causing the motion of the object
36. Thinking distance – distance travelled by a vehicle while the driver reacts
37. Torque of a couple – one force x perpendicular distance between the forces
38. Vector – magnitude and direction (e.g. displacement, velocity, acceleration, force,
momentum)
39. Weight – force of gravity on a mass
40. Work – force x displacement in the direction of the force
41. Youngs Modulus – tensile stress over tensile strain (measure of stiffness of material)

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