CBSE Class 11th- Newtons First Law Of Motion

Newton's First law of Motion

• We have already stated Newton's First law of motion which says that a body would continue to be in state of rest or continue to move with constant velocity unless acted upon by a net external force
• Here the net external force on the body is the vector sum of all the extenal forces acting on the body
• When the body at rest or in a state of motion with uniform velocity then in both the cases acceleration is zero.This implies that
  a=0 for F=0
• When net forces i.e vector sum of all the forces acting on the body is zero.the body is said to be in equilbrium .When rotational motion is involved <,net torque on body should also be zero i.e their is no change in either translational or rotational motion
• Since forces can be combined according to the rules of vector addition.Thus for a body to be in equilibrium 
  R=ΣF=0
  or in component form
  ΣF_x=0
  ΣF_y=0
  These are the condition for the body in translational equilibrium
• We will discuss about rotational equilibrium while studying torque and rotational motion
• Thus Newton's First law of motion quantitatively defines the concept of force as a influence that changes the state of motion of the body
• It does not say anything about what has to be done to keep object moving that is once the body gains motion by the application of force would it always remains in the state of motion or it would come to rest
• According to first law if we completely eliminates frictional forces, no forward force at all would be required to keep an object ( say a block on table) moving once it had been set in motion