Types of Forces

Having established what a force DOES (change momentum, per Newton's second law), this section turns to classifying the different KINDS of forces a body can experience, along several independent and overlapping schemes developed in the sub-sections that follow: by their fundamental physical origin (4.5.1), by whether or not physical contact is required (4.5.2), by whether they are genuinely 'real' or only apparent artifacts of an accelerating frame (4.5.3), and by whether the work they do is path-independent or path-dependent, i.e. conservative or non- …