WHAT ARE FORCES?
- abelvalladolid66
- Mar 3, 2022
- 2 min read
A force is a physical agent which is capable of deforming a body or modifying its stationary or mobile state.
How forces are represented
With forces like many other quantities, it is not enough to know the numerical value
of the quantity and its unit, we also need to know the direction and the direction of motion of the force.
Forces as deforming agents
Deformable solids can behave in two different ways when a force is applied:
Plastic materials deform when a force is applied to them and do not return back to their original shape when the force being applied stops.
On the other hand:
Elastic materials deform when a force is applied to them but return back to their original shape when the force being applied stops.
Forces are measured with elastic materials
The law we use today to measure forces was discovered by:
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke was a Renaissance Man – a jack of all trades, and a master of many.
He wrote one of the most significant scientific books ever written, Micrographia, and made contributions to human knowledge spanning Architecture, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Surveying & Map Making, and the design and construction of scientific instruments.
He also discovered the law we use today to measure forces. He discovered the force-meter.
In this web site you can learn more about this important scientist.
Hooke’s Law
In 1660, Hooke discovered Hooke’s Law, which states that the tension force in a spring increases in direct proportion to the length it is stretched to.
How much an spring stretches is directly proportional to the force applied (the weight). So, when we put double the weight on a spring, it gets twice as long and if we put triple the weight on, it is three times as long and so on.
In this web site you can experience with different spring and weights.
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