Forces Vocabulary
Name and describe forces using precise vocabulary (force, push, pull, twist, stretch, squash, contact force, non-contact force, gravity, weight, friction, air resistance, upthrust), and distinguish between forces that require physical contact and forces that act at a distance
What a learner can do afterwards
- Correctly name the force acting in at least five given scenarios (e.g. 'friction slows the sledge', 'gravity pulls the apple')
- Distinguish between contact forces (friction, upthrust) and non-contact forces (gravity, magnetism) using the correct terms
- Use 'weight' correctly as a force, distinct from 'mass', in descriptions
1 · Read
A force is a push or a pull. It can start something moving, stop it, or change its shape.
Some forces need touching. Friction rubs and slows things down. Upthrust is water pushing up on a boat. Air resistance is air pushing back on things that move through it. These are contact forces. Other forces work from far away, like gravity and magnets. These are non-contact forces.
Mia drops a ball. Gravity pulls it down to the ground. She does not touch the ball, so gravity is a non-contact force.
Weight is a force. It is gravity pulling on you. Mass is how much stuff you are made of. They are not the same. On the Moon the pull is gentler, so you would weigh less, but your stuff would stay the same.
Force is a push or pull: contact forces touch, non-contact forces do not.
The rewritten readings were written for this dataset. Reading 'Animals and the forces around them' is original to this dataset.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.