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The concept of force makes the everyday notion of pushing or pulling mathematically precise. Because the magnitude and direction of a force are both important, force is a vector quantity. The SI unit of force is the newton (N), and force is often represented by the symbol F. Force plays an important role in classical mechanics.
In the natural sciences, a vector quantity (also known as a vector physical quantity, physical vector, or simply vector) is a vector-valued physical quantity. [9] [10] It is typically formulated as the product of a unit of measurement and a vector numerical value (), often a Euclidean vector with magnitude and direction.
In physics, a force field is a vector field corresponding with a non-contact force acting on a particle at various positions in space. Specifically, a force field is a vector field F {\displaystyle \mathbf {F} } , where F ( r ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {F} (\mathbf {r} )} is the force that a particle would feel if it were at the position r ...
Vector fields are often used to model, for example, the speed and direction of a moving fluid throughout three dimensional space, such as the wind, or the strength and direction of some force, such as the magnetic or gravitational force, as it changes from one point to another point.
A force is known as a bound vector—which means it has a direction and magnitude and a point of application. A convenient way to define a force is by a line segment from a point A to a point B. If we denote the coordinates of these points as A = (A x, A y, A z) and B = (B x, B y, B z), then the force vector applied at A is given by
The forces acting on a body add as vectors, and so the total force on a body depends upon both the magnitudes and the directions of the individual forces. When the net force on a body is equal to zero, then by Newton's second law, the body does not accelerate, and it is said to be in mechanical equilibrium .
Unlike the other two fictitious forces, the centrifugal force always points radially outward from the axis of rotation of the rotating frame, with magnitude , where is the component of the position vector perpendicular to , and unlike the Coriolis force in particular, it is independent of the motion of the particle in the rotating frame.
A diagram of Central forces. In classical mechanics, a central force on an object is a force that is directed towards or away from a point called center of force. [a] [1]: 93 = = | | ^ where is the force, F is a vector valued force function, F is a scalar valued force function, r is the position vector, ||r|| is its length, and ^ = / ‖ ‖ is the corresponding unit vector.