Newton's Third Law

Forces influence everything. From the Earth's pull on the Moon to the firing of a bullet from a gun; forces are involved. A force can be defined as a push or a pull. Gravity is always a force that pulls you toward the center of the Earth. Forces always come in pairs. For every action there is always an opposite and equal reaction. There is never just one force. There are always at least two forces. This is there is always an action and reaction force. This is Newton's Third Law according to Newton's laws of motion -Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

If you push on a wall, the wall pushes you back with an opposite and equal force. When you step on a scale, then the scale will give a reading, because it pushes back on you. If you were to push down on a desk while standing on the scale your reading would be reduced, because the desk pushes you up. If you were to pull under the desk your weight reading would be increased, because the desk exerts and opposite and equal reaction force pushing you down.

The Earth pulls on the Moon and the Moon also pull on the Earth with an opposite and equal force. The Sun pulls on the Earth and the Earth pulls on the Sun opposite and equally. Since the Earth is more massive than the Moon the Moon undergoes a greater acceleration. Since the Sun is more massive than the Earth the Earth undergoes a greater acceleration.

When you fire a gun the bullet projected exerts a backward force on the gun. The forces are opposite and equal. The bullet undergoes a greater acceleration in the forward direction and the gun kicks back with less acceleration because it is more massive.

When a child kicks a ball, the ball experiences a force equal to the force felt by the child's foot. The ball has a greater acceleration because of its smaller mass.

If you were to punch a piece of paper, then would the paper experience an opposite and equal force to the punch? The punch cannot exert its total force on the paper, so only the portion of the punch that the paper felt would be exerted back. No matter what the situation forces are always opposite and equal.

Forces influence the world we live in. They always come in pairs. For every action there is always an opposite and equal reaction. So if you are nice to somebody, maybe they will be nice back. Remember that!

Newton's laws of motion -Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,Wikipedia