Mission NL3: Unbalanced Forces and Accelerations

Mission NL3 focuses on the manner in which an object would move when the individual forces that act upon are unbalanced. A good deal of attention must be given to the direction of the acceleration and its relationship to the relative size of opposing forces. The mission consists of 39 questions organized into 10 Question Groups. You must answer one question from each Question Group to complete the mission. The learning outcomes for this mission are ...
 

Learning Outcomes

• The student should be able to relate the state of motion of an object (especially the direction of the acceleration) to the magnitudes of the individual forces which act upon it.
• The student should be able to relate the net force of an object to the acceleration of the object.

 

Launch Mission NL3

 

Getting Help

If you are not familiar with this topic, then you should first learn about the topic using our written Tutorial or our Video Tutorial:
 

The Physics Classroom, Newton's Laws Unit, Lesson 1, Part d

The Physics Classroom, Newton's Laws Unit, Lesson 2, Part d

The Physics Classroom, Newton's Laws Unit, Lesson 3, Part b

• How can force information help one decide if an object is moving in a given direction at a constant speed?
• How can force information help one decide if an object is moving in a given direction and slowing down?
• How does one interpret an oil drop diagram (also known as a ticker tape diagram)?
• How can one determine the amount of force required to maintain a constant velocity?
• How can the direction of an object's acceleration be determined from force information?
• Which direction is the acceleration if an object is speeding up?
• Which direction is the acceleration if an object is slowing down?

 

Video Tutorials:

What Do Forces Do?

 

Force-Motion Misconceptions

 

 

Question-Specific Help

Each Question Group has its own Help page with information specific to the question. You can access the Help page from within the mission by tapping on the Help Me! icon (textbook). For your convenience, links to those pages are provided below: