Lesson Plan: Force Diagrams
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to draw and interpret force diagrams.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- draw force diagrams when given a descriptive list of forces on an object,
- interpret given force diagrams with typical notation,
- resolve forces, horizontally and vertically only,
- understand the definition of equilibrium and apply it to force diagrams,
- understand Newton’s first law and apply it to force diagrams.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- basic trigonometry (sine, cosine, and tangent),
- vector addition.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- forces in three dimensions,
- Newton’s second law,
- the coefficient of friction.