Question

Write and explain Newton's second law of motion.

Answer 1

Hint: Out of the three laws of motion given by Newton, the second law deals with the force and acceleration of a body. The force applied on a body produces an acceleration in that body and equal to the product of mass and acceleration of the body.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Newton gave three laws of motion which govern all the objects around us. The second law of motion is related to the force applied on an object and the corresponding acceleration produced in the object. It states that the amount of force applied on a body is directly proportional to the amount of acceleration produced in that body on the application of force. Mathematically, the amount of force applied on an object is equal to the product of the mass of the object and the amount of acceleration produced in the object. It is given as
$F = ma$
Here F is the force applied on the object, m is the mass of that object while a is the acceleration that is produced in the object on the application of force F.

Note: We can also write the second law of motion in terms of the change of the momentum of the body. The amount of force applied is equal to the time rate of change of the momentum of the body.
$F = \dfrac{{dp}}{{dt}}$
Here p is the momentum of the body and it is equal to the product of the mass and the velocity of the body. If we insert this definition in the above expression and put the rate of change of velocity to be equal to the acceleration of the body then we will get the original expression for Newton’s second law of motion.