Newton's First Law
Forces and Motion

Galileo's thought experiment

Teaching Guidance for 14-16 PRACTICAL PHYISCS

Galileo thought that a ball, rolling or sliding down a hill without friction, would run up to the same height on an opposite hill.

Suppose that the opposite hill was horizontal. Would the ball's motion continue forever along the tangent, or forever parallel to the Earth's surface?

Galileo's conclusion from this thought experiment was that no force is needed to keep an object moving with constant velocity.

Newton took this as his first law of motion.

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Inertia and Newton's first law

Inertia is a powerful idea. Using many examples will help students to understand...

For 14-16 10 Resources

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Newton's First Law
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The central idea of this episode is laid out in Newton's first law of motion and can be summarised as follows:

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Galileo's rolling ball

Demonstration: Roll a ball on a curved track to explain Galileo's idea, which in turn led to Newton's First Law of Motion.

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Mass

Mass is a difficult, strange and sophisticated concept but it is important to build up an understanding of it. Students may...

Teaching Guidance 14-16

Misconceptions
RESEARCH REVIEW Forces and Motion

Most students think that if an object is moving, there must be a force in the direction of its motion

  • Number of Resources1
  • Number of References10
  • Number of Diagnostic Resources0
RESEARCH REVIEW Forces and Motion

Some students think that ‘at rest’ is a natural state in which no forces are involved

  • Number of Resources3
  • Number of References8
  • Number of Diagnostic Resources2
RESEARCH REVIEW Forces and Motion

Many students think that a force is needed to keep an object moving with a constant speed

  • Number of Resources3
  • Number of References12
  • Number of Diagnostic Resources2
Newton's First Law
formalises Inertia
includes the quantity Force
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