Force — Introduction to Force and Its Effects + 5 more topics

• Starting motion: Kicking a stationary soccer ball.
• Stopping motion: A catcher stopping a baseball.
• Changing speed: Pressing the accelerator to go faster, or the brake to slow down.
• Changing direction: Steering a car around a corner.
• Changing shape: Squishing a ball of play-doh.

Forces are vector quantities, meaning they have both a magnitude (how strong they are, e.g., 10 Newtons) and a direction (e.g., upwards, to the left). We measure force in Newtons (N). One Newton is roughly the force you need to lift a small apple.

Newton's Laws of Motion are three fundamental principles that govern how objects move and interact. They are the bedrock of classical mechanics.

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