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A non-contact force is a force applied to an object by another body that is not in direct contact with it. Non-contact forces come into play when objects do not have physical contact between them or when a force is applied without any interaction. When compared to the types of contact forces, there are very few non-contact forces

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A contact force is any force that requires contact to occur.[1] Contact forces are ubiquitous and are responsible for most visible interactions between macroscopic collections of matter. Moving a couch across a floor, pushing a car up a hill, kicking a ball or pushing a desk across a room are some of the everyday examples where contact forces are at work. In the first case the force is continuously applied by the person on the car, while in the second case the force is delivered in a short impulse. Contact forces are often decomposed into orthogonal components, one perpendicular to the surface(s) in contact called the normal force, and one parallel to the surface(s) in contact, called the friction force.[1]

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CONTACT FORCE

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What Is Force?

You've probably heard of 'The Force,' but this isn't quite the same as a force. A force is a push or pull on an object. This push or pull comes from the objects interacting with one another and only from such interactions. Once the interaction stops, there is no longer any force.

While forces come in pairs, there can be even more forces in an interaction. For example, when you throw a ball into the air, the ball is experiencing the force of gravity, friction, and the pushing force from you all at the same time!

Forces are important because, as we learned in another lesson, they are responsible for changes in motion. In fact, Isaac Newton describes this in his first law. This law of inertia states that an object continues in its state of rest or motion unless acted on by an outside unbalanced force. So, your cat sleeping on the couch isn't likely to move unless you apply a force (pushing on the cat).

Newton wasn't just great at scientific laws; he also got his own unit of measure! The standard unit of force is the Newton, or N. So, for example, if something is 5 N, this means 5 Newton force.

But force has both magnitude and direction, which makes it a vector quantity. The magnitude of the force is how much, and the direction is in which way. So, in order to fully describe the force, we would need to say the force is 5 N and in which direction (like downward or to the left). As with any vector quantity, we show forces with arrows. The arrow's length represents the magnitude, while the arrow's direction shows the direction of the force.

We can put forces into two different categories, contact and non-contact. Let's look at each one more closely to get a better understanding of them.