During your science carrier, especially if you do physics, you’ll hear the term ‘force’ a lot, but what is a force?
Force is just a fancy word for something that pushes and pulls. If we push a chair, we are applying a force to it. If I pick up a coffee cup, I am apply a force to it. If I jump I am applying force.
In most cases, applying force is a balancing act, in order to move something we either need to match or exceed the opposite force.
Two natural forces that we experience everyday are, gravity and magnetic forces.
Gravity pulls objects towards each other, like a person towards the ground. Its the force which keeps us revolving around the sun, and brings us down to the ground when we jump.
If you have ever played or used magnets you’ll know about magnetic forces.
Magnetism produces a force that can either pull opposite ends of two magnets together or push the matching ends apart.
They can also attract specific objects made of metal.
The above 2 forces act constantly without the need for contact between two objects. When objects come into contact with each other there are 5 kinds of forces which act on them. These are called Contact Forces.
Normal force, Applied force, Frictional force, Tension force and Spring force are types of contact Forces.
