Last updated

7 November 2026

IB DP Physics lesson pack on Newton’s second law and F = ma for Topic A.2 Forces and momentum, SL and HL, first assessment 2025. It shows how a resultant force sets a body’s acceleration, and how to choose between Newton’s three laws. Editable worksheet, 43-slide lesson deck, teacher key, worked solutions and a questions-only assessment, supplied as self-contained HTML plus colour and black-and-white PDF.

What students learn

Newton’s second law, F = ma, rearranged for each of its three quantities and used with the equations of motion.
The acceleration follows the resultant force, never the velocity: a braking lorry accelerates backwards.
Acceleration is directly proportional to the resultant force at constant mass, and inversely proportional to the mass at constant force. Students sketch both graphs.
The newton is a derived unit, kg m s⁻², defined so that the law needs no constant of proportionality.
Two bodies that move together: treat them as one system to find the acceleration, then one body alone to find the force between them.

IB skills (Tool 3: Mathematics):

Understand direct and inverse proportionality (taught).
Select and manipulate equations (practised).
Express derived units in terms of SI units (practised).
Propagate uncertainties in processed data (practised).
Express quantities and uncertainties to appropriate significant figures (practised).
Understand the significance of uncertainties in raw and processed data (practised).

What’s included:

Student Worksheet - 17 pages
Teacher Key - 25 pages
Worked Solutions - 17 pages
Assessment - 12 pages
Lesson deck - 43 slides

Seven written questions carry 58 marks across 24 parts, and there are five multiple-choice items. Students sketch graphs or draw force arrows on three of the seven figures. A data question propagates uncertainties through a product and a difference, then asks which measurement limits the result most.

The lesson teaches the law for a body of constant mass but does not measure it in a lab. SI units, IB notation and IB command terms throughout. Use it with grades 11-12 (ages 16-19) as a lesson, cover lesson, homework or revision.

Part of the A.2 Forces and Momentum Complete Unit Bundle, 30% off buying the packs separately.

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Updated 7 Nov 2026: please reprint.
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A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

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IB DP Physics (2025) A2 Forces and Momentum Complete Bundle

The complete Topic A.2 Forces and momentum unit for IB DP Physics, SL and HL, first assessment 2025: ten lesson packs, a bench practical, the SL and HL topic test and two vector skill packs, 30% off buying them separately. **What's in the unit** - Ten lesson packs in teaching order: Contact and Field Forces; Free-Body Diagrams and Force Pairs; Resultant Force, Inertia and Newton's First Law; Newton's Second Law: F = ma; Friction: Static and Dynamic; Upthrust, Viscous Drag and Terminal Velocity; Momentum, Impulse and F = Δp/Δt; Collisions and Explosions; Circular Motion I: Angular Velocity and Centripetal Acceleration; and Circular Motion II: Centripetal Force. - A bench practical, Investigating Newton's Second Law: a trolley lab at fixed mass, then at fixed force, as a full pack with its own deck. - The Topic A.2 test: SL and HL question papers with AO-tagged mark schemes, 36 marks in 50 minutes at SL and 43 marks in 60 at HL. - Two vector skill packs: Resolving Vectors, with more than 100 answered practice items, and Adding and Subtracting Vectors, with 35. Together the ten lessons cover all 24 understandings of Topic A.2, from forces as interactions and Hooke's law to Newton's three laws, friction, drag, momentum, collisions and circular motion. The topic test assesses all 24. **Every lesson pack includes:** - An editable student worksheet - A teacher key with every answer and marking point - Worked solutions with every step and its units - A questions-only assessment with IB mark allocations - A choreographed lesson deck with staged reveals Across the ten: 191 student worksheet pages, 304 teacher key pages and 505 slides. **IB skills (mostly Tool 3: Mathematics):** free-body diagrams; drawing, adding and resolving vectors; scale diagrams; direct and inverse proportionality; selecting and manipulating equations; plotting, best-fit lines, gradients, intercepts and linearizing; uncertainty bars and lines of maximum and minimum gradient; means, ranges and propagated uncertainties; and, from Inquiry 1, 2 and 3, designing a method, controlling variables, judging outliers and identifying random and systematic errors. Everything ships as self-contained HTML that opens in any browser with nothing to install, every worksheet editable, plus colour and black-and-white PDF of every document. The test's grade boundaries are set by YPhysics, not the IB, and you can edit them. SI units, IB notation and IB command terms throughout. Suitable for grades 11-12 (ages 16-19) for first teaching, assessment and revision. **Also in the catalogue, sold separately:** - [A.1 Kinematics Complete Unit Bundle, the topic before this one](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13537351) - [Foundations of Motion: Distance and Displacement, a whole lesson pack in this format, free](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-13516114) *A rating helps other teachers find this.*

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