To illustrate Newton's three laws of motion using the two students on inline skates, we can explore each law with practical examples involving their masses (50 kg and 60 kg).
1. Newton's First Law of Motion (Law of Inertia)
Description: An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Example:
- Both students are initially at rest on their skates. If they don’t push off or if no external force acts on them (like friction or a shove), they will remain stationary.
- If Student A (50 kg) starts to move and glides forward, they will continue moving in that direction until friction with the ground or an external force (like hitting an obstacle) slows them down or stops them.
2. Newton's Second Law of Motion (F=ma)
Description: The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting upon it and inversely proportional to its mass.
Example:
- If both students decide to push off the ground to gain speed, Student A (50 kg) will accelerate faster than Student B (60 kg) when they apply the same amount of force because acceleration is inversely related to mass.
- For instance, if they both push off with a force of 60 Newtons, we can calculate the acceleration:
- For Student A: \( F = ma \)
- \( 60 , \text{N} = 50 , \text{kg} \times a_A \)
- \( a_A = 1.2 , \text{m/s}^2 \)
- For Student B:
- \( 60 , \text{N} = 60 , \text{kg} \times a_B \)
- \( a_B = 1 , \text{m/s}^2 \)
- For Student A: \( F = ma \)
3. Newton's Third Law of Motion (Action and Reaction)
Description: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Example:
- When either student pushes off the ground, they exert a force on the ground (action). The ground exerts an equal and opposite force on them (reaction), propelling them forward.
- If Student A pushes off with a force of, say, 100 Newtons, the ground pushes back with an equal force of 100 Newtons. The same applies to Student B.
Overall, these examples showcase how Newton’s laws apply practically in a situation involving two students on inline skates, emphasizing the concepts of inertia, force, mass, and action-reaction pairs.