Force and Acceleration

If all the forces acting on an object cancel each other out then it is in equilibrium. It will either be stationary or be moving at a steady speed.

If a resultant force acts on an object then it will accelerate. At GCSE you may have called it an unbalanced force.

The acceleration of the object will be proportional to the size of this resultant force. It will also be inversely proportional to the mass of the object.

In the S.I. system a Newton is defined as the force required to give a mass of 1 kg an acceleration of 1 m/s².

Therefore         F_res = m x a

When using this equation make sure you are considering all the forces acting on the object.

Here are a few examples.