The first law of motion states that the objects tend to be in a state of motion or be in rest unless some external force is incident on the object.
The object cannot move or stop on its own. The force plays a major role in either displacing the object or bringing it to the rest. Let us discuss some of the first law of motion examples listed here below:-
Ping-pong Ball
The ping-pong ball conserves the momentum and the energy and hence it keeps on bouncing until it is made to stop. The sum of the kinetic energy and the potential energy of the ball remains the same on every bounce.
Newton’s Cradle
Newton’s cradle is designed with the bobs such that the momentum and the energy of all the bobs are conserved.
The bobs attached at both ends remain in motion at every interval of time and rest all the bobs in the middle are in a stationary position.
Brakes Applied to the Car
The car will stop accelerating immediately after applying the brakes. The car accelerates depending on the rotational speed of the gears. The engine of a car supplies the energy to the battery on the combustion of fuel.
Pulling or Pushing the Object
Upon applying pull or push force on the object, the object will displace from its initial position to the distance where it is pulled or pushed. The force required to move the object from its place depends upon the mass and configuration of the object.
Shopping Trolley
The shopping trolley in a mall is moved forward by applying the force and stops as we stop applying the force on it.
This follows the first law of motion too. The trolley has a wheel underneath. The circular curvature of the wheels makes it possible to sway the heavy load from the trolley.
Slider
A body sliding from the inclined slider will come to a rest when the force is exerted on it from the opposite direction. This force is exerted on a body as soon as the body touches the ground at the end of the slider and the body comes to a rest.
Raindrops
The raindrops will come to rest on meeting the ground and their kinetic energy is lost.
The raindrops approach from the cloud towards the ground due to the gravitational force of attraction of the Earth felt on the raindrops. The potential energy of the raindrop is converted into kinetic energy while making its journey toward the ground. On the force incident on the raindrop, it will come to a rest.
Ball
A ball accelerating will come to rest on applying the force over it. A stationary ball will be set into motion as the force is applied to the ball. To displace the ball from its place or to make it stationary at a place a force is required in both cases.
Bouncing Ball
The ball bounces back due to the force imposed on the surface of the ball by the ground. As the ball bounces on the ground the potential energy of the ball is converted into kinetic energy and it is bounced back into the air. This continues till the ball possesses potential energy.
Force Applied on Object Sliding Down
If the object is sliding down from a hill, its speed will keep on increasing if the shape of the object is round or cylindrical. To stop the object from sliding down a force has to be applied in a direction opposite to its motion.
Paddling for Cycling
To keep the bicycle moving you need to continuously apply the paddles.
If you stop paddling the bicycle will lose momentum and you will fall down. The cycle can be easily brought to a state of rest by applying a brake.
Striker on Carom Man
When you hit a striker towards the target carom man, the striker comes to a rest after hitting the carom man if the force exerted on the striker is sufficient. Upon hitting the carom man, the momentum of the striker is carried forward to the carom man and it moves from its place due to the exerted force from the striker.
Skiing
The skiing blade moves smoothly on the frictionless ice until the force is exerted by the stick in the skier’s hand on the ground. The sticks are used to guide the path and the direction and to slow down the speed as the speed of the skier increases if encountered a slope in between the path.
Swing
A swing will not oscillate until you give an initial push.
On applying push force you convert the potential energy of the body into kinetic energy and hence it starts oscillating.
Kicking a Football
A football will be in its state of rest until the player kicks the ball from its place. On kicking the ball you are actually supplying the kinetic energy to the ball to accelerate in a projectile motion.
Fan
A fan will be in a stationary position until you give an electrical power supply to set it into rotational motion. A fan rotates on a single axis of rotation. A capacitor of a fan stores a charge along with it, and hence it moves initially at a slow speed.
Hula Hoop
The hula hoop is a round circular hoop that you put around your body and give it a torque to rotate. If you stop it will lose its angular motion and it will fall down.
The angular speed of the hoop depends upon the number of torques given to the hoop in a given time interval.
Spinning Top
The precession of the spinning top is based on the angle between the azimuthal and spinning axis of the top and the torque given to the body for spinning. As the angle between the two increases, the center of gravity of the top points more and more away from its symmetric axis, and the momentum becomes zero.
Accident
When the two moving vehicles collide with each other or if the vehicle hits another heavy object the speed of the object becomes zero and the moving vehicles come to a rest. The force incident on the object is responsible to bring the fast moving vehicle to a stationary position.
Windmill
A windmill converts wind energy into electrical energy. The propellers of the windmill are stationary until the waves of wind hit the propellers and start rotating. These rotations are escalated by the use of shaft and motor.
Dart
A dart is accelerated towards the dartboard and comes to rest upon hitting on the surface of the board.
The dart has a pin at its end which pokes in the board. The depth at which the pin pokes in the board depends on the force and kinetic energy given to the dart throwing towards the target.
Pendulum
The Pendulum is at its resting position until it is perturbed by applying a force or giving it momentum. The oscillation of the pendulum comes to a rest decreasing its angle of oscillations gradually.
Stopping in Between a Walk
A person walking on a road suddenly stops in between is also an example of first law motion. A person applies a muscular force to bring his body to a rest position.
Apple kept on the Table
An apple kept on a table will be in its state of rest until some external force is applied to the apple to displace it from its position of rest.
The amount of force required to move the object also depends upon the shape and size of the object. For a rounded structure, less force is required compared to the same weighted object.
Skater Hitting on a Wall
The unprofessional skater, if hits on the wall by mistake, he will fall and come to a rest. A skater in a kinetic motion upon hitting on the wall will exert equal and opposite force on his body. On application of the force from the opposite direction, his body will come to a rest. If the impact of the force is more then he will obviously fall down.
Water Contaminated
The flowing water is moving with great mechanical energy. The flow of water will come to rest on meeting the volume of the water contaminated. As the volume of the water increases, the hydrostatic force between the molecules of water increases.
Hot Air Balloon
The hot air balloon moves in a direction of the flow of wind along with the air force. It continues to move with a wind flow.
If the direction of the wind changes it resists the motion of the balloon.
Dry Leave on a Node of a Tree
A dry leave is attached to the node of the tree and is at a stationary point. If the air resistance force is imposed on the node of the leaf then it will detach from the node and fall down.
Kayak on Stationary Water
Kayak will not move forward in stationary water if you stop rowing. The water has to push backing to move the kayak ahead along with your body.
Shoes on Rack
The shoes will remain stationary on the rack until the position of the shoes is changed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why object remains stationary?
The stationary object follows Newton’s First law.
It will remain stationary until some force is exerted on its body. The force is an external source for the energy conversion of a body.
Why do some objects come to rest after moving a certain distance without applying force?
Some object travels a longer distance while some cover the shortest distance and come to a rest.
The objects are undergoing the forces that resist their motion depending upon the mass and shape of the objects. These forces are frictional force and air resistance.
Also Read:
- Repetitive motion examples
- Amplitude of motion examples
- Simple harmonic motion examples
- How to find normal force in circular motion
- Vertical motion examples
- Reciprocating motion examples
- State of motion examples
- Rolling motion examples
- Projectile motion derivation
- Types of relative motion
Hi, I’m Akshita Mapari. I have done M.Sc. in Physics. I have worked on projects like Numerical modeling of winds and waves during cyclone, Physics of toys and mechanized thrill machines in amusement park based on Classical Mechanics. I have pursued a course on Arduino and have accomplished some mini projects on Arduino UNO. I always like to explore new zones in the field of science. I personally believe that learning is more enthusiastic when learnt with creativity. Apart from this, I like to read, travel, strumming on guitar, identifying rocks and strata, photography and playing chess.
