Ideas on how you can teach Newton´s Laws of Motion to your students
LikeWhen teaching Newton´s laws of motion during private physics classes it's inportant to have some nice concrete examples to help students visualise the concept of the laws.
Newton´s First Law
For Newton´s First Law, the first part is quite easy. You can use a ball sitting on the floor at rest and demonstrate that it will stay that way unless a (resultant) force acts on it. For the second part, I often ask the student to imagine some a bit more cosmic like the same ball floating in outer space at 5 m/s. And if no force acts on it, it will keep going in a straight line at 5 m/s until the the end of the universe!
Newton´s Second Law
Newton´s Second Law can be summarised by a simple formula:
F=ma (force = mass x acceleration)
I ask the student to imagine trying to move a wheelbarrow of gravel around their garden. If you give double the push (i.e double the force) the barrow accelerates twice as much (ignoring friction and drag, of course). If you half the mass (by chucking most of the gravel away), you can get the double the acceleration, but with the original force.
Newton´s Third Law
Newton´s Third Law can be a bit tricky, so I call on my childhood working with motor boats in Scotland. Why does an outboard motor make a boat move? Because when the propeller blades rotate, they push the water backwards with F newtons of force. But because of Newton´s Third Law, the water pushes the outboard motor forwards, also by F newtons. And as it is attached to the boat, the boat starts to accelerate.
So hopefully, using these images as examples, the students can visualise and get the hang of some sometimes rather abstract concepts. It can often take a few discussions or examples before it clicks, like a lot of science, really.
If you´re a student in need of physics lessons with a private tutor, please don´t hesistate to get in touch with me.