Verifying Newtons Third Law by Collision Experiment using Force Sensors

Mohd Afiq bin Mohd Asri University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering Division of Engineering Science

Abstract Newtons Third Law is a fundamental law in natural sciences, which states that for every action there is a reaction equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. This experiment seeks to verify this statement to be true, by calculating the difference of magnitudes of forces detected by two force sensors acting in opposite in direction of each other. This experiment consists of two parts: the first part is colliding two toy trucks mounted with the force sensors against each other; and the second part involves pushing both toy trucks against each other along a certain distance. This experiment yields a difference value of 0.0 0.01 N, which implies that the magnitudes of the two forces are equal and acts in opposite direction; thus verified the Law to be true.
Keywords: Newtons third law, action, reaction, difference in magnitudes of forces

1. Introduction In July 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published his famous work Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica which stated the three laws of motion. The Newtons Third Law is an important element in classical mechanics; and is central to many fields such as statics, astronomy, et cetera. Newtons third law of motion states that if two objects interact, the force (action) exerted by object 1 on object 2 is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force (reaction) exerted by object 2 on object 1 (Serway & Jewett); i.e:

The objective of this experiment is to verify the law by methods of colliding two objects mounted with force sensors. As the law stated that the two forces are of equal magnitudes, thus it is hypothesized that:

| | - | | = 0

(2)

The direction of the action and reaction forces are opposite of each other, since the two objects will be collided against each other in a linear trajectory. Therefore the law is verified if hypothesis (2) is proven true.

= -

(1)

2. Experimental Method 2. 1. Apparatus 2 toy trucks of similar type and mass, each mounted with a PASCO CI-6746 Force Sensors; and 2 weights of approximately same mass. 2. 2 Experimental Procedures The force sensors mounted on the front of each toy truck were connected to the DataStudio interface. A suitable sampling rate was set to enable accurate sampling of instantaneous values of the forces in both force sensors (for this experiment, a sampling rate of 150Hz was used). The tare button was pressed before starting the experiment run, to set the sensor reading to zero. The two toy trucks were collided against each other. The differences of the experimental values of the two forces during the collision (where the value at the peak of the graph of the forces independent of each other is the magnitude of force at collision) were calculated. To verify that the Newtons Third Law is always valid, the weight of one of the trucks was varied by adding the additional weights onto it and the experimental procedures were repeated. In another experimental procedure, the two trucks were set in contact with each other. The trucks were pushed along a specific distance (in this experiment, the distance was 2.0 m) with a constant pushing force on the first truck, which in turn pushes the second truck. The instantaneous differences of the two forces were again calculated and plotted against a scatter plot. The weight of the

second truck was again varied using additional weights. 3. Results The obtained data for the action and reaction forces are tabulated as below:
Force Sensor Average magnitude of detected force at point of collision (N)
Without additional weight With additional weight on B

Standard deviation (N)

A B Force Difference

10.61 10.56 0.05

7.84 7.88 0.04

0.87 0.89

Table 1: Comparison of forces between sensors A and B in the first part of experiment, average taken over 30 samples

The differences between the forces are plotted against a scatter plot as follows:
3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1
Difference of Action and Reaction Forces

Figure 1: Graph of frequency of differences of action and reaction forces between sensors A and B in the second part of the experiment, taken over 20 samples

Count

4. Discussion The result obtained in the first part of experiment shows that the difference of average magnitude of action and reaction forces when the two trucks collide against each other is 0.04 0.87 N when both trucks are of equal mass and 0.05 0.89 N when the trucks vary in mass. The predicted value of the difference, 0.0 N falls within the range of both results. This also implies that the magnitudes of both forces are the same regardless of the mass of the two bodies in contact. The slight deviation of the mean value of difference compared to the predicted value are possibly due to errors in the force sensors itself, where the sensors do not detect the instantaneous magnitude of the forces simultaneously during collision, hence creating a small variation of data at the point of collision. The sensors itself are subject to systematic errors, as they sometimes produce reading even when no force is applied at the sensor heads, within range of 0.005 N. The statistical deviation could also happen due to the collision being nonlinear. The force sensors have its sensor detect the maximum force when the force is applied parallel to the sensor heads (PASCO). If the collision trajectory is not completely linear, the sensors may detect the components of the force that is parallel to the sensor head. For the second part of the experiment, the differences of instantaneous values of forces detected at sensors A and B are plotted on a scatter. The value of

differences range within 0.6 N, and the mean and mode value is at 0.0 N. This mean value corresponds to the predicted value of difference, 0.0 N. The scatter plot forms a Gaussian distribution graph, with approximately two-thirds of the values lie between 0.1 N. Statistically, 68% of the data samples lie within 1 standard deviation from the mean (Colqohoun). Thus the standard deviation of the results is 0.1 N. The reason for the deviation is similar to the ones discussed for the first part of the experiment. In addition, for the second part of the experiment, the error was also contributed by the pushing force applied to the first truck was not exactly to be constant, thus may cause the force sensors to lose contact with each other and produce statistical flukes.

5. Conclusion The difference in magnitudes of the two forces appears to be 0.0 0.1 N (rounded to one decimal place), when all the errors are accounted for. This implies that both action and reaction forces has the same magnitude. The direction of the force sensors are opposite of each other. Newtons Third Law of Motion is verified to be true as the action and reaction forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.

6. Acknowledgement The author expresses gratitude towards University of Toronto for the opportunity to utilise the laboratory facilities in McLennan Physical
3

Laboratories to perform scientific investigation; Course Coordinator Dr Natalia Krasnopolskaia and Lab Demonstrator Andras Lindenmaier for supervision and guidance; and laboratory partner Timothy Ng.

7. References [1] Serway, R.A & Jewett, J.W. Physics for Scientists and Engineer, Vol. 1, 7th ed. (Thomson Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA, 2008). p.107. [2] Colquhoun, D. Lectures on Biostatistics: An Introduction to Statistics with Applications to Biology and Medicine. (Oxford Uni Press, London. 1971). p.73. [3] PASCO, Inc. (n.d). Economy Force Sensor CI-6746. Retrieved from http://www.pasco.com/prodCatalog/ CI/CI-6746_economy-force-sensor/