What's covered
Key facts
Hooke's Law
The elastic limit is the point beyond which a spring is permanently deformed and will no longer return to its original length when the force is removed.
Newton's laws
From F = ma: acceleration = F ÷ m; the greater the force for a fixed mass, the greater the acceleration; the greater the mass for a fixed force, the smaller the acceleration.
Hooke's Law
The elastic potential energy stored in a stretched spring is E = ½ke² (half the spring constant times the extension squared).
Newton's laws
A falling object accelerates due to gravity (10 m/s²) until air resistance equals its weight; then it falls at constant terminal velocity with zero acceleration.
Hooke's Law
A stretched or compressed spring stores energy in its elastic potential store, which is released when the spring returns to its original shape.
Newton's laws
With no air resistance, all objects fall with the same acceleration (about 10 m/s² on Earth) whatever their mass, so a heavy and a light object dropped together hit the ground at the same time.
Hooke's Law
On a force-extension graph for a spring obeying Hooke's Law, the gradient of the straight-line portion represents the spring constant.
Newton's laws
Inertia is the tendency of an object to resist a change in its motion; more massive objects have greater inertia.
Hooke's Law
Hooke's Law equation: force = spring constant × extension (F = ke), where k is the spring constant and e is the extension.
Newton's laws
One newton (N) is the force required to give a mass of 1 kg an acceleration of 1 m/s² — directly from F = ma.
Sample questions
A taste of the 52 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
What is a force?
- ✓A push or pull on an object
- •A type of energy store
- •Speed of an object
- •The mass of an object
What is the equation for Hooke's Law?
- •F = k/e
- ✓F = ke
- •F = ke²
- •F = ma
What does Newton's first law say about an object with no resultant force on it?
- •It always slows down and eventually stops
- •It changes direction but keeps the same speed
- •It speeds up steadily in the direction it faces
- ✓It stays still or keeps moving at constant velocity
What is the equation for pressure?
- •P = A/F
- •P = F × A
- ✓P = F/A
- •P = F/d
What is the equation for speed?
- ✓speed = distance ÷ time
- •speed = distance × time
- •speed = force ÷ mass
- •speed = time ÷ distance
Which is a contact force?
- •Electric force
- ✓Friction force
- •Gravity force
- •Magnetic force
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