In this lecture we will look at some applications of Newton's second law, expressed in the different coordinate systems that were introduced in lectures D3-D5. Recall that Newton's second law F=ma, (1) is a vector equation which is valid for inertial observers. In general, we will be interested in determining the motion of a particle given
We will start by studying the motion of a particle. We think of particle as a body which has mass, but has negligible dimensions. Treating bodies as particles is, of course, an idealization which involves an approximation. This approximation may be perfectly acceptable in some situations and not adequate in some other cases. For instance, if we want to study the motion of planets it is common to consider each planet as a particle