When a car accelerates, it is because the road is pushing it forward!

Here's a little more detail. The car's engine turns the wheels. When
the tire turns at a constant rate, the point at the bottom of the tire
is stationary for a moment; the wheel acts like a lever with the
fulcrum at the bottom, because friction of the tire against the road
keeps it from slipping. The axle, at the center of the wheel, moves
at the speed of the car; the point at the top of the wheel moves twice
as fast.
When the car is accelerating, the wheels undergo angular or rotational
acceleration: they turn faster and faster. This is accomplished by
angular force (called torque) exerted by the engine on the axle. At
the bottom of the tire, this torque takes the form of a force acting
backward, pushing against the road. But as long as the tire is not
slipping (skidding), the point at the bottom of the tire continues to
be stationary: it is not accelerating. By Newton's first law, it is
"an object at rest and staying at rest" and this is only possible if
the net force on it is zero.
The axle is exerting a force on that point, pushing backward against
the road. In order for the net force to be zero, there must be
another force of equal magnitude, pushing forward on the point at the
bottom of the tire. This force is exerted by the road; it is Newton's
third law "equal and opposite" reaction force.
When we turn our attention from the point at the bottom of the tire to
the entire car, we find that this reaction force of the road against
the tire, pushing forward, is the only unbalanced force acting on the
car. (I'm assuming a flat road, so that the force of gravity pulling
down on the car is balanced by the "normal force" of the road pushing
up on the car, keeping the car from sinking into the road.) When an
unbalanced force acts on an object (the car), the object accelerates
in the direction of the force (Newton's second law). So it's the road
pushing on the car that makes it accelerate forward. Of course the
power comes from the car's engine, but in terms of external forces,
that's the way it is!
Now we can turn our attention to you, sitting there with your seat
belt on. As the car moves, your body is subject to Newton's first
law: it is minding its own business, moving along at constant speed
(let's say 60 miles per hour) along with the car. But as the car
accelerates, the next moment the seat back is moving slightly faster
than you are, so it catches up with you. You and the seat back can't
be in the same place at the same time, so the seatback pushes forward
against you: it exerts a force directed forward. By Newton's third
law, your body exerts a reaction force against the seat back,
directed backward.
Let's get some math into the picture. Let's say the road is exerting
a forward-pointing force F against the car, the car (without you) has
mass M and its acceleration is A. You have mass m, and the car is
pushing against you with force f. Your body pushes back against the
seat back with equal force f, and it accelerates with acceleration a.
I can set up two free-body diagrams, one for the car and one for you:
f<---- CAR ---->F
MA

YOU ---->f
ma

By Newton's second law, I derive the following equations from the

free-body diagrams:
F-f = MA

f = ma
I use the second equation to substitute into the first equation:
F - ma = MA
I'd need another equation in order to solve for both accelerations, a
and A. This equation would have to do with how hard your body and the
seat back push back when something gets too close. It won't be a
simple equation, but I can assure you that eventually the seat back
must stop getting closer to you: its acceleration and yours become
equal. Once that has happened, we have
F
F
F
a

=
=
=

ma = Ma
Ma + ma
(M+m)a
F/(M+m)

This is no surprise, because when we consider the car plus you to be

a single free body, we get the diagram
CAR+YOU ----> F
(M+m)a
All the time the car continues accelerating with constant acceleration
a, you will feel that force of the seat pushing forward against you,
and you will be pushing backward against the seat. If you put a
bathroom scale between you and the seat back, it would register a
weight. The scale normally measures the force with which the earth
pushes up on you to keep you from falling through; in this case it is
measuring the force with which the seat back pushes forward on you to
get you going faster. That's why when the car accelerates, you feel
as if you are pushed back into the seat.
One more step: Let's say the car has reached 65 miles per hour, which
is the speed limit, so it stops accelerating and goes at a steady 65
miles per hour. Now there is no more force between you and the seat.
But when the car turns off the highway and decelerates to 45 miles per
hour, the forces reverse direction. Now your body is moving faster
than the car, so it moves forward until the seat belt stops it. In
order to stop you from moving forward, the seat belt exerts a force on
you, and you exert an equal and opposite forward force against the
seat belt. When the car gets down to 45 miles per hour and stops
decelerating, the forces go away again.

Introduction The traditional phrasing of Newton's First Law of Motion is this: An object at rest will remain at rest
(forever!), and an object in motion will remain in motion (forever!) in a straight line with constant speed, unless acted upon by
an outside force.
Note that this statement is meaningless unless you know what a force is. What is a force? Any push or pull. Other synonyms:
tug, nudge, poke, shove, prod, impetus, heave, yank
Alternate phrasing of Newton's 1st Law: An object cannot change its velocity by itself. Something outside must exert a force.
This property is called inertia. It is a natural resistance to acceleration that all objects have. The greater the object's mass, the
greater this resistance.
Youve probably heard of this before, and may even think that it is obvious, but its not. In our everyday experience, things
dont keep moving unless something pushes them. Coasting cars come to a stop; boxes slid on the floor come to a rest unless
you keep pushing on them. The reason most things in our lives do NOT keep moving forever is because there almost

always is an outside force friction. When friction is reduced to insignificance, inertia becomes much more obvious. For
example: a hockey puck sliding on an ice rink, or the puck on an air hockey table. The invention of the wheel, while not
removing friction entirely, greatly reduces friction and makes it easier to keep things moving.
The idea of inertia wasnt discovered by Newton, despite being called Newtons First Law. It was actually discovered by
Galileo.
You know about inertia from your everyday experience. For example:

You are in a car that comes to a sudden stop. Your body wants to keep going at its original speed, and you feel like you
are being pushed forward, into the seatbelt. Actually, the seatbelt is exerting a backwards force on you, slowing you
down.

You are trying to get ketchup out of a bottle. What do you do? You shake the bottle, bringing the upside-down bottle
towards the plate and stopping it suddenly, hoping the inertia of the ketchup will cause it to keep going and come out of
the bottle. (If the ketchup is thick or the bottle opening narrow, it might not work.)

You are rolling a cart with an object on top of it. If you push on the cart to start or stop it, the object on top may fall off.
(I did this once with a very expensive computer monitor on a cart. CRASH!)

You are in a vehicle moving with constant velocity, and toss a ball straight up. To you, it appears to rise straight up,
stop, and fall straight down back into your hand, just as it would if you and the car were stationary. To an observer
standing by the road, however, the ball lands in your hand because, when it was in the air, its inertia carried it forward
at the same speed it had when you were holding it.

Here are some consequences of inertia that I hope you never experience...

Imagine you are in a stopped car (say, at a red light) and another car strikes yours from behind, you may
suffer whiplash. Your body is accelerated forward by the force of the seat, but your head wants to stay stationary. If
there is no headrest, your head will be accelerated forward by your very overstetched and bent neck. To you, it feels as
if your head is snapped backwards, but whats really happening is your body is being accelerated forward and your
head is being left behind. Watch this video from CNN about testing conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway
Safety.

Imagine you are in a car and crash into a tree. The car comes to a sudden stop because the tree is exerting a very large
force on the car. The tree isnt exerting a force on your body, however, and you will continue moving at your original
velocity until something does stop you. If you have your seatbelt on, the seatbelt will do the job. If not, you will
continue through the windshield and be stopped by some object outside the car.

While riding a skateboard without a helmet, you fall and your head strikes the ground. Your skull stops suddenly, but
your brain keeps moving, causing it to ram into the inside of your skull, resulting in bruising, swelling, and disruption
of brain function. This is called a concussion.

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