In the latest unit of my enthralling and
fascinating physics class, I learned about FBDs, how to sum and identify the forces acting on an object; how to determine the mass, weight and acceleration of an object using the equation F=ma, and Newton's first, second, and third laws of motion. FBDs, or free body diagrams, are representations of an object and all of the forces acting on an object. FBDs are extremely useful when trying to find the sum of the forces in the x or y axis. The sum of the forces is found using sigma, and the sum of the forces always equals zero when an object is in equilibrium (when the object is at rest or has a constant
velocity). To find out the mass, acceleration, of force of an object, you set force equal to mass times acceleration, solve for the missing component, and plug in the numbers. Newton's first law states that an object at rest will tend to stay at rest, and an object in motion will tend to stay in motion, or that something sitting still will stay sitting still until you move it. The second law says that the acceleration of an object directly pertains to the net force of the object, and the object's mass. So, the heavier something is, the harder it's going to be for you to move it. The third, and last, law says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, or that every time you hit something, it's going to hurt.
The part of this unit that I thought was most difficult was solving for the sum of the forces of an object on an inclined plane. The orientation made it harder for me to figure out which forces belonged in which axis, but I somehow made it through thanks to my awe inspiring problem solving skills. To solve this problem, I rotated the page with the FBD on it. That made it much simpler to determine which
axis the forces were in. Figuring out the x and y components of gravity was also difficult,
because you use sin instead of cos to determine the x value, and you use cos instead of sin to determine the y value.
