Newtons Three Laws

For a couple centuries before Einstein, Newtons Laws were the basic principles of
Physics.
These laws are still valid and they are the basis for much engineering analysis
today. Formal statements
of Newtons Three Laws are given below. Informal explanations of Newtons Three
Laws are given
below each formal statement.
Newtons First Law:
An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in
motion with
the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced
external force.
Inertia is a property of matter that resists changes in motion. If a mass is not
moving, it will stay
that way until an unbalanced external force starts to move it; if a mass is in motion,
it will stay in motion
with the same speed and direction until an unbalanced external force changes its
motion characteristics
(friction could slow it down, or a force could accelerate its motion).
For example, let us consider a hockey puck on the ice (assume the ice is perfectly
level and
frictionless). If the puck is placed down on the ice, it will stay motionless until
someone hits it with a
stick or skate because of its inertia. Also due to inertia, when slapped, the puck will
tend to move in a
straight line with constant speed until an external force (such as another player, or
the goalie, or the net)
changes its motion.
As a second example of Newtons First Law, consider a car accelerating from a
stoplight. As the

car accelerates from zero motion, your body tends to push back into the seat due to
its inertia (trying to
remain at rest). Also, as the car is braked from a high speed back to stopping, your
body is flung
forward due to its inertia in motion. Hopefully you have your seatbelt on, or else
Newtons First Law
could have bad consequences.
Newtons Second Law:
The acceleration a of an object as produced by a net force F is directly proportional
to the
magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely
proportional to the
mass m of the object: F = ma.
A resultant external force F acting on a body will accelerate that body in the
direction of F, with
acceleration a = F/m. Acceleration is the second time rate of change of position,
also the first time rate
of change of velocity; acceleration is to velocity what velocity is to position.
Newtons original
statement of the Second Law was that the resultant external force F is equal to the
time rate of change of
momentum (mv, mass times velocity):
( ) mv
dt
dF=
If the mass is constant, this relationship becomes the familiar form of Newtons
Second Law:
ma
dt
dv F = m = Before Newton developed his Second Law, the prevailing belief was that
force was proportional

to velocity: F = mv. This appeared to be true for the motion of horse-drawn carts,
since friction
dominates this problem. Newton revolutionized engineering mechanics; his laws
were unchallenged
until Einsteins Relativity work. Newtons Laws are still the basis for most
engineering dynamics today.
Newtons Third Law:
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
This law is familiar in everyday situations; a force cannot be applied to an object
unless
something resists the reaction of that force. In order to walk across the floor, you
must push back on the
floor with your foot; then, according to Newtons Third Law, the floor pushes forward
on your foot,
which propels you forward. This, of course, requires friction to work. If a free-floating
astronaut were
to throw a baseball, there is nothing to resist the throwing force, so as the baseball
accelerates in the
direction of throwing, the astronaut would accelerate backwards, with a force equal
and opposite to the
throwing force. The astronaut would accelerate at a much smaller level (by
Newtons Second Law)
since her mass is much greater than the baseballs mass. The recoil of a gun during
firing is another
example of Newtons Third Law. As a final example, if a person attempts to jump to
a dock from a
small sailboat, they may end up landing in water if they do not understand
Newtons Third Law: similar
to the astronaut example, the jumping force of the human on the boat will tend to
push the boat
backwards; the equal and opposite force of the boat on the human will propel that
person toward the

dock, but since the boat moves backwards, the person may end up wet. The same
problem exists for
large sailboats, except with larger boat inertia, it is less noticeable.