What are Newton's Laws of Motions?

Question

I don't understand the three laws that well, I need help to clarify each one

Answer 1

Newtons Laws of motion are indeed intriguing philosophies. In fact all 'science' as we know it today was once a conversation among students and teachers.

In addition to what you've learned already, lets simplify the laws down into bite size pieces :)

Law #1: a body at rest will stay at rest, and a body in motion will stay in motion, unless acted on by an outside force.

What does this mean? It means that if you have a ball on a desk, it is going to stay in that position forever, until you pick it up, or the wind blows it off. It also means that if you were to perfectly spin a dreidel on that same desk and there was zero air friction or friction between the dreidel and the surface of the desk, that dreidel would spin into eternity unless someone stopped it.

Law #2: The force acting on an object, is equal to the mass of the object times its acceleration, represented by F=ma.

What does it mean? It means that in order to move the ball rolling along the surface of the desk, you will need to use as much force as its mass times its acceleration.

Law #3: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

What does it mean? It means that the ball is not falling through the desk, because the same force it is exerting on the desk (its mass times acceleration due to gravity) is equal and opposite to the force that the desk is exerting on the ball. (This is also called the normal force).

Answer 2

1. Newton's First Law (Law of Inertia):

"An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion at constant velocity unless acted upon by a net external force."

1. This means objects don’t change their state of motion unless a force causes them to.
2. Example: A ball on the ground stays still until you kick it.

2. Newton's Second Law (Law of Acceleration):

"The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass."

1. F=maF = maF=maFFF = net force (in newtons)
2. mmm = mass (in kg)
3. aaa = acceleration (in m/s²)
4. This law explains how much an object will accelerate when a force is applied.

3. Newton's Third Law (Action-Reaction Law):

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

1. When you push on something, it pushes back with equal force in the opposite direction.
2. Example: When you jump, your feet push down on the ground, and the ground pushes you upward.

Answer 3

1. Newton's First Law (Law of Inertia):

"An object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will continue in motion at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force."

1. This means that things don’t change their motion unless something causes them to.
2. Example: A book lying on a table stays there until you push it.

🏎️ 2. Newton's Second Law (Law of Force and Acceleration):

"The force acting on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its acceleration."

Formula: F = ma

1. This explains how much an object will accelerate when a force is applied.
2. Example: A heavier object needs more force to move than a lighter one.

🎯 3. Newton's Third Law (Action and Reaction):

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

1. This means when one object applies a force on another, the second object applies the same force in the opposite direction.
2. Example: When you jump off a boat, the boat moves backward

Answer 4

1 a body at rest stays at rest (unless your mother wakes you up) Law of Inertia. but Einstein's relativity says everything is relative, so a body is at rest or moving, relative to other bodies. how do you know if it's really at rest?

2 F=MA, Force = Mass times Acceleration. that means a tiny mosquito coming at your windshield with accelerating speed, going from 2 mph to 3 mph, exerts greater force on your windshield than an 18 wheeler semi exerts if at constant speed of 200 mph as it crashes into you windshield and flattens your car. Makes sense? Paradoxical? the 18 wheeler exerted Force = MA =M(0) = 0 force, no force at all. How can that be??

3 for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. that means when Iron Mike Tyson punches your face in, your face acts/reacts equally into Mike's hand. so? does that make any sense?? did you hurt Mike's hand??

if you can answer above questions, you understand the 3 laws of motion

Answer 5

Hi Elizabeth! Newton's Laws and Physics in general can be very confusing. When I took Physics, I found it more understandable when I was able to apply the laws to real world situations. For example:

Newtons First Law, also known as the Law of Inertia, states that an object will remain at rest or continue moving at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force. In simpler terms, things don't start moving, stop moving, or change direction unless something causes them to. A good example of this is when you're riding in a car that suddenly stops—your body lurches forward because it wants to keep moving even though the car has stopped. Similarly, a soccer ball sitting still on the grass won’t move until someone kicks it, and once it starts rolling, it would keep going forever if there were no friction or resistance to slow it down.

Newton’s Second Law explains how the motion of an object changes when a force is applied. It states that the force acting on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration, or F = m × a. This means that the more force you apply, the more an object will accelerate, but heavier objects require more force to accelerate. For instance, pushing an empty shopping cart is much easier than pushing a cart full of heavy groceries. Even if you apply the same amount of force to both, the full cart accelerates more slowly because it has more mass.

Newton’s Third Law is the Action-Reaction Law, which tells us that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that forces always come in pairs. When you push against something, it pushes back with the same force in the opposite direction. A great example is when you jump off a small boat—your jump pushes the boat backward just as much as it pushes you forward. Rockets launch using this principle by pushing exhaust gases downward, and in turn, the rocket is propelled upward.

Hopefully, by tying some real world examples to these confusing ideas, you can make better sense of them! Let me know if this helps, and good luck in the future!

Answer 6

I am very glad that you are asking this question. Newton's laws are the most brilliant, most misunderstood, most misquoted and most misrepresented statements in Physics.

All the three laws of Newton are about particles. Particles are fictitious entities that have zero space dimensions (Example: A ball with mass but zero diameter.) So when people say that Newton's laws fail, they are wrong because Newton did not talk about the worldly object that they are applying them to.

It was Euler who extended Newton's laws to rigid bodies. In a way, the world plagiarized Euler's work in favor of Newton. Rigid bodies again are just fictitious entities that cannot be deformed. So again, Euler's laws also cannot fail!!

Newton's second states that sum of forces acting on a particle are equal to its rate of change of momentum. You can find so many wrong representations of this law in the world and taught by professional teachers that it is astounding.

Newton's third law states that for every action force there is a reaction force. The action reaction forces act on adjoining particles. This law, even among Newton's laws, is the most misrepresented and most misunderstood of all laws.

Newton's laws are as much statements in Physics as they are statements in Philosophy.

Feel free to get in touch with me if you want to understand and use Newton's laws for your academics.

Answer 7

All three laws can be summarized in this equation: F = m*a.

a: acceleration, which is the question: is the object speeding up? Is it slowing down? Is it changing direction? If any of those are true, you have an acceleration!

F: external net force. In this stage of physics, we ask the question: if the object is speeding up, what's causing it? The answer is: there is a Force. This force intuitively could be wind, could be gravity, could be someone pushing it, could be tension on a string, etc. It is any interaction with the environment. That's what's causing it to speed up. We try to categorize those interactions as different kinds of forces.

In summary, we try to explain the question: why does it speed up? And we try to use the concept of "force" to explain it. If you push harder, it speeds up more.

You can see mass as something that shows up last. It says: if you weigh more, it's more difficult to physically move you. That's all.

This is typically called the second law. However, you can easily see the other laws in this equation, for example, what happens if F=0? What then happens to acceleration, following this equation? Then what does that say about velocity? Give it a shot, it's a fun thought experiment!