force

1. Law: Power, pressure, or violence, generally of an unlawful nature, directed against a person or thing to damage, harm, or remove it.

2. Mechanics: Dynamic agency or influence that pushes or pulls a body or object. If the body is at rest, a force tends to move it or, if it cannot move, to deform or break it. If the body is already moving, a force tends to change its direction of movement, or to decrease (decelerate) or increase (accelerate) its speed in the direction it is moving. Some forces (such as drag and resistance) require a contact with the body to effect a change, other forces (such as gravity and magnetism) require the body to be within their field of influence (called force field). The SI unit of force is newton which is defined as the amount of force required to accelerate a 1-kilogram body by 1 meter per second per second.