Contact & Non-Contact Forces Flashcards

All 6 cards in this deck

What is a force?

A push or pull that acts on an object due to its interaction with another object.

What is a contact force?

A force that acts only when two objects are physically touching.
e.g. friction, air resistance, tension, normal contact force

What is a non-contact force? Give examples.

A force that acts when the objects are physically separated: gravitational force, electrostatic force and magnetic force.

True or false? Magnetic force is a contact force.

False. Magnetic force is a non-contact force — it acts without the objects touching.

What name is given to the force acting along a stretched string, rope or towbar?

Tension.

In an interaction between a pair of objects, what can be said about the two forces produced?

Each object exerts a force on the other: the two forces are equal in size, opposite in direction, and act on different objects.
e.g. a magnet and a steel block attract each other equally