Miscellaneous Notes: Introductory Physics
There is so little content here that it should probably just be deleted. But not just yet. The following simple problem keeps coming up with beginning students, so I decided to have it handy here for reference.
Inclined plane problems abound in the physics subject area of classical, or Newtonian, mechanics ... beginning with your first course in physics. In the following document, I try to provide some good diagrams allowing you to see more clearly the relation between the angle of the inclined plane with respect to a horizontal line, and the angles of various force vectors acting on an object placed on the plane, usually measured with respect to lines perpendicular and parallel to the inclined plane. Special attention is paid to the local gravitational force on an object due to the Earth (equal to the weight of the object if it is in an inertial frame of reference, as assumed in these diagrams), and the force of friction that always opposes the object's motion (i.e., is in the opposite direction of its velocity vector).
inclined_plane-new2.pdf | |
File Size: | 61 kb |
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