ABSTRACT
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) constructed a framework for the analysis of objects in motion. The second of his three Laws of Motion is the launching point for most of our investigations in this chapter. The shorthand version of Newton’s Second Law is
F = ma
where F is the sum of all forces acting on an object, m is the object’s mass, and a is the acceleration of the object. One of the most remarkable aspects of
Newton’s Second Law is that it can also be written as F = ma, where F and a appear in bold to indicate that they are multidimensional vector quantities. We will return to this form of the equation when we look at motion in two and three dimensions. The mass m is a scalar (real number) that is related to weight: for earthbound sports, weight is approximately equal to mass times the gravitational constant g.
