Section 5.

Newton’s third law

of motion
• Action and reaction pair
• Newton’s third law of motion
• Examples of Newton’s third law
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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 92)

Action and reaction pair

Painful! WHY?
Reaction
force on hand

Action force
on table

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 93)

Action and reaction pair

When the toy car moves to left,

the cardboard moves to right
WHY?

plastic beads Thinking 6

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 93)

Action and reaction pair

By friction between car wheels and cardboard

reaction

action
f′ = force on wheels by f = force on cardboard by
cardboard, push car wheels push board to
to left right
f and f ’ are action and reaction pair
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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 94)

Newton’s third law of motion

action on A by B reaction on B by A

FA = -FB

Newton’s third law of

motion
For action & reaction pair
forces must be • equal in magnitude
• opposite in direction
• acting on different bodies
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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 94)

Data-logging experiment
Expt 5C
Newton’s third
law
(data-logging)
data-logging
interface
force
sensor A
force
sensor B

rubber
bumper

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 95)

Data-logging experiment

The F-t graphs of the sensors:

The F-t graphs for sensor A and sensor B

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 95)

Examples of Newton’s third law

Tug-of-war Thinking 7
Who will win?

• T and T′ are action and reaction pair,T = −T′

• f and f′ are external force (friction)
If f > f ’, they moves to left and Edmond wins.
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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 96)

Stepping off a boat

Thinking 8

action force on boat, boat to left

reaction force on man, man to right
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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 96)

Example 5:

Tracy and Edmond are standing on two skateboards as

shown in the figure.
The masses of Tracy and Edmond with the skateboards are
50 kg and 66 kg respectively. Assume there is no friction on
the ground. When Edmond exerts a force of 20 N on the
rope, Tracy just stands still and grasps the rope.

Solut
ion

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 96)

Example 5: (Cont)

(a) Will only one of them move? Explain briefly. Solut

ion
Both of them will move towards each other, no matter who pulls
the rope. By Newton's third law, both Edmond and Tracy will
be subjected to a force of 20 N at the same time.

Solut
(b) Find the accelerations of Edmond and Tracy. ion
By Newton's second law of motion, we have
F
a=
m 20
Acceleration of Edmond = = 0.3 m s -2

66
20
Acceleration of Tracy = = 0.4 m s - 2
50
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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 97)

Class Practice 7:
7

1. In each of the following cases, name all the pairs of action

and reaction forces.

(a) A tennis player hits the ball with a racket Ans

1. The force acting on the racket by
wer
the ball and the force acting on the ball
by the racket.
2. The supporting force acting on the boy
by the earth (upward) and the force acting
on the earth by the boy (downward).
3. The gravitational force on the boy by
the earth (downward) and the
gravitational force on the earth
by the boy (upward).

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 97)

Class Practice 7 (Cont):

(Cont)

(b) A boy holds a ball. Ans

wer
1. The force acting on the ball by the hand
(upward) and the force acting on the hand
by the ball (downward).
2. The force acting on the boy by the earth
(upward) and the force acting on the earth
by the boy (downward).
3. The gravitational force on the boy
by the earth (downward) and the
gravitational force on the earth
by the boy (upward).

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 97)

Class Practice 7 (Cont):

(Cont)

(c) An athlete riding a bicycle on a road. Ans

wer
1. The force acting on the peddle by
the athlete and the force acting
on athlete by the peddle.
2. The force acting on the ground by the
wheel (right) and the force acting on
the wheel by the ground (left).
3. The force acting on the system
by the earth (upward) and
the force acting on the earth
by the system (downward).

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 98)

Class Practice 7 (Cont):

(Cont)

2. Jessie is sitting on a chair. Put a tick in the circle if the

forces labelled are an action and reaction pair. State your
reason in each case.
(a) Ans
wer

They are equal in magnitude, opposite

in direction and acting on different
bodies.

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 98)

Class Practice 7 (Cont):

(Cont)

(b) Ans
wer

The forces are both acting on

Jessie. An action and reaction pair
must be acting on different
objects.

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 98)

Class Practice 7 (Cont):

(Cont)

(c) Ans
wer

They are equal in magnitude,

opposite in direction and acting
on different bodies.

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 To section 5.7

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 93)

Thinking 6:

If the tray does not contain plastic beads, would

the motions of the car and the cardboard be
affected? Explain briefly. Ans
wer

Return to

Text
Without the plastic beads, the toy car still moves
forwards. However, since the friction between the
cardboard and the tray is very large, the cardboard does
©not move.
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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 95)

Thinking 7:

In the figure below, mark three pairs of

action and reaction. Ans
wer

Return to

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Text
20
5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 96)

Thinking 8:

A stationary truck carries 10 000 butterflies. All the

butterflies are resting on the floor of the truck
initially. Later, all the butterflies are flying inside
the truck. Does the overall weight of the truck
change? Ans
wer

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5.6 Newton’s third law of motion (SB p. 96)

Thinking 8 (Cont):

No, the overall weight of the truck remains

unchanged. When the butterflies are flying, their
weights are supported by air. By Newton’s third
law of motion, if the air provides an upward
force to the butterflies, there is an opposite force
of the same magnitude acting on the air. This
downward force results in a downward force on
the floor of the truck. This force is equal to the
weight of the butterflies.
Return to

Text
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