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32 votes
15 answers
6k views

What is the fundamental definition of force?

As I pick up more physics I see that the definitions of force commonly provided in books and classrooms are misleading. "A force is a push or pull." This seems to be a "correct" ...
Ethan Dandelion's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
148 views

What is actually weight?

When a book is kept on the table than gravity of earth is attracting the book downwards and gravity of book attract earth this is action reaction pair Now here are two more force acting normal ...
Vanshika Sejwani's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
44 views

How to know what force to plug in for work?

Suppose I have a positive charge $+Q$ at some point, and I want to see how much work I need to do to bring a negative charge $-q$ to a distance $r$ from that point. The direct calculation is done via ...
Vasting's user avatar
  • 163
1 vote
4 answers
631 views

What is the formula for the force of friction as a vector?

The formula I've grown up with is $F_{fr} = \mu F_{N}$, where $\mu$ is the coefficient of friction between the object and the surface $F_{N}$ is the normal force of the surface acting upon the object ...
doggo's user avatar
  • 13
-17 votes
2 answers
433 views

Can (and should) wifi internet be considered a force? [closed]

I've recently been using my wifi internet, for the last few years and have been enjoying it very much. I am able to communicate with my family across the globe in mere seconds, it's obviously a marvel ...
saccharomycescerevisiae's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
815 views

How can an object do work?

I read in many sites that the concept of mechanical energy is the ability of an object to do work, but how can an object do work? Isn't it rather the force applied to that object the one that produces ...
Caeta's user avatar
  • 179
1 vote
4 answers
199 views

Is "force" and "exerting a force" the same or different things?

Is "exerting a force" and "force" the same or different things? Either it your answer is "same" or "different" give an explanation for this. How this doubt came ...
user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
112 views

Clarification on the displacement in the definition of Work

I'd like to ask a question about work. The definition of work gives us a way to calculate the work done by a force along a path but in practice it's not always clear what path to take in consideration....
HomoVafer's user avatar
  • 410
0 votes
1 answer
129 views

What (pedantically) defines a "central force", as in "central force law of areas", etc.?

A typical description of a central force is found here Lecture L15 - Central Force Motion: Kepler’s Laws (pdf). "When the only force acting on a particle is always directed to­ wards a fixed ...
Steven Thomas Hatton's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
574 views

Measurement of force

According to Newton's Second Law, $F=ma$ which is based on the fact that force is proportional to acceleration for a constant mass. But how will someone measure force to confirm this? Suppose one ...
Vedant Chhapariya's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
929 views

Proving if a force is conservative and non-conservative

recently I have studied conservative forces and non-conservative forces in halliday book and while doing some exercise I saw some questions asking for proving if a force is conservative so after doing ...
infinite's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
362 views

What does potential energy really mean?

I have a lot of doubts regarding the potential energy definitions First of all,I would try to express my Understandings(they might be wrong)regarding the issue I was told that if Work done on a body ...
Dheeraj Gujrathi's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
535 views

Is Newton's second law definition of force, or experimental statement? [duplicate]

I usually hear explanation of the second law like this: If you apply twice as much force, it doubles the acceleration. When the same force is applied, if the mass is doubled, the acceleration becomes ...
dogum's user avatar
  • 39
3 votes
2 answers
684 views

Circularity In Definition Of Force?

So my college physics book defines a force as a push/pull, but mainly a vector quantity, having both magnitude (strength) and direction. Yet it also defines the unit of a Newton, as THE FORCE, ...
Kevin C Speltz's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
267 views

Why is electromagnetism considered a non-contact force?

The four fundamental forces (gravity, the strong force, the weak force, and electromagnetism) are all supposed to be non-contact forces. Yet, electromagnetism governs all contact forces between ...
Und's user avatar
  • 13

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