Newton's Laws for Systems of Particles

 

A system consists of two or more particles. Newton's laws can be applied to a system of particles. You can apply Newton's laws to the system as a whole or to the individual particles that make up the system.

 

 

When applying Newton's second law to a system, the internal forces sum to zero.

 

∑F_i + ∑f_i = ∑F_i = ∑m_ja_j