Question 1

What Is Newton's Third Law of Motion?

Accepted Answer

In 1687, and throughout his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica masterpiece, widely known as the Principia, Sir Isaac Newton proposed his renowned three laws of motion, commonly named after him. The laws mainly deal with the term “force,” but do you know what the types of forces are? Forces exist in two forms, either as a result of contact interactions, i.e., normal, tensional, frictional, and applied forces; or as a result of actions-at-a-distance interactions, existing in the form of electrical, electrical, and magnetic forces. In this law, Isaac Newton described any two objects that are interacting to be exerting mutual forces upon each other. That is to say, if you are reading this article whilst sitting on a chair, therefore your body will be exerting a downward force on the chair, and so does the chair but in the upward direction.. YES! The chair too exerts force on you! Not just that, but during this battle between your body and the chair, the Earth will be also exerting a downward gravitational force on both of you!! And guess what? True.. both of you will be resisting being swallowed to the center of the Earth, and you will be exerting equally upward force.

Question 2

How Is Newton's Third Law of Motion Useful in Our Real Life?

Accepted Answer

A variety of action-reaction force pairs are evident in nature, and in our real life. Here are 7 applications of Newton's third law of motion: Walking: when you walk, you push the street; i.e., you apply an action force on the street's ground, and the reaction force moves you forward. Gun Firing: when someone fires a gun, the action force pulls the bullet outside the gun, and the reaction force pushes the gun backward. Jumping from a boat: the action force is applied on the boat, and the reaction force pushes you to land. Parallelly, the action force pushes the boat backward. Slapping: when you slap someone, your hand feels pain and so does the cheek of the victim. The pain in the cheek is due to action force, and the pain in the palm is due to reaction force. Bouncing a ball: when a ball hits the ground, the ball applies an action force on the ground. The ground applies a reaction force and the ball bounces back. Flight motion of a bird: the wings of the bird push air downwards as action force, and the air pushes the bird upwards as reaction force. Swimming of a fish: the fish’s fins push water around it backward as an action force, and the water applies a reaction force by pushing the fins forward, thus the fish.

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