Newton's Second Law
Prompt
“Write down Newton's second law.”
Context
This SWBQ follows up on the Survivor in Space activity and is used as a segue into generalizing Newtons's second law to systems of many particles.
Wrap Up
Collect several student responses. Many students will respond with an introductory form $$F = m a$$ but be sure to collect boards that remind students that Newton's second law is an equality between vector quantities. If no students bring up the second-derivative nature of the acceleration [!
more].
This SWBQ is intended to connect directly to a derivation of reduced mass.