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3 Laws of Motion

Newton's First Law states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This law of inertia was described by Galileo and refined by Newton. Newton's Second Law states that the acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object. Newton's Third Law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, or that in every interaction, there are two forces acting on the two interacting objects.

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187 views3 pages

3 Laws of Motion

Newton's First Law states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This law of inertia was described by Galileo and refined by Newton. Newton's Second Law states that the acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object. Newton's Third Law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, or that in every interaction, there are two forces acting on the two interacting objects.

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MarcPocong
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Newton's 1st Law

From the original Latin of Newton's Principia:

Lex I: Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi unifor

Translated to English, this reads:

Law I: Every body persists in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle had the view that all objects have a natural place in the universe:
that heavy objects (such as rocks) wanted to be at rest on the Earth and that light objects like smoke
wanted to be at rest in the sky and the stars wanted to remain in the heavens. He thought that a body was
in its natural state when it was at rest, and for the body to move in a straight line at a constant speed an
external agent was needed continually to propel it, otherwise it would stop moving. Galileo Galilei,
however, realised that a force is necessary to change the velocity of a body, i.e., acceleration, but no
force is needed to maintain its velocity. In other words, Galileo stated that, in the absence of a force, a
moving object will continue moving. The tendency of objects to resist changes in motion was what Galileo
called inertia. This insight was refined by Newton, who made it into his first law, also known as the "law of
inertia"no force means no acceleration, and hence the body will maintain its velocity. As Newton's first
law is a restatement of the law of inertia which Galileo had already described, Newton appropriately gave
credit to Galileo.
The law of inertia apparently occurred to several different natural philosophers and scientists
independently, including Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan.[29] The 17th century philosopher and
mathematician Ren Descartes also formulated the law, although he did not perform any experiments to
confirm it.[citation needed]

Newton's 2nd Law


Newton's original Latin reads:

Lex II: Mutationem motus proportionalem esse vi motrici impressae, et fieri

This was translated quite closely in Motte's 1729 translation as:

Law II: The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impr

According to modern ideas of how Newton was using his terminology,[30] this is understood, in modern
terms, as an equivalent of:
The change of momentum of a body is proportional to the impulse impressed on the body, and happens
along the straight line on which that impulse is impressed.
This may be expressed by the formula F = p', where p' is the time derivative of the momentum p. This
equation can be seen clearly in the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, in a glass case in which
Newton's manuscript is open to the relevant page.
Motte's 1729 translation of Newton's Latin continued with Newton's commentary on the second law of
motion, reading:
If a force generates a motion, a double force will generate double the motion, a triple force triple the
motion, whether that force be impressed altogether and at once, or gradually and successively. And this
motion (being always directed the same way with the generating force), if the body moved before, is
added to or subtracted from the former motion, according as they directly conspire with or are directly
contrary to each other; or obliquely joined, when they are oblique, so as to produce a new motion
compounded from the determination of both.
The sense or senses in which Newton used his terminology, and how he understood the second law and
intended it to be understood, have been extensively discussed by historians of science, along with the
relations between Newton's formulation and modern formulations. [31]

Newton's 3rd Law

Lex III: Actioni contrariam semper et qualem esse reactionem: sive corpo

Translated to English, this reads:

Law III: To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the m

Newton's Scholium (explanatory comment) to this law:


Whatever draws or presses another is as much drawn or pressed by that other. If you press a stone with
your finger, the finger is also pressed by the stone. If a horse draws a stone tied to a rope, the horse (if I
may so say) will be equally drawn back towards the stone: for the distended rope, by the same endeavour
to relax or unbend itself, will draw the horse as much towards the stone, as it does the stone towards the
horse, and will obstruct the progress of the one as much as it advances that of the other. If a body
impinges upon another, and by its force changes the motion of the other, that body also (because of the
equality of the mutual pressure) will undergo an equal change, in its own motion, toward the contrary part.
The changes made by these actions are equal, not in the velocities but in the motions of the bodies; that
is to say, if the bodies are not hindered by any other impediments. For, as the motions are equally
changed, the changes of the velocities made toward contrary parts are reciprocally proportional to the
bodies. This law takes place also in attractions, as will be proved in the next scholium. [32]
In the above, as usual, motion is Newton's name for momentum, hence his careful distinction between
motion and velocity.
Newton used the third law to derive the law of conservation of momentum;[33] from a deeper perspective,
however, conservation of momentum is the more fundamental idea (derived via Noether's
theorem from Galilean invariance), and holds in cases where Newton's third law appears to fail, for
instance when force fields as well as particles carry momentum, and in quantum mechanics.

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