Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion

By: Stephen Edwards

Newton’s First Law of MotionNewton’s first law says that an object at rest stays at rest unless

acted on by an unbalanced force. It also says that an object in motion stays in motion unless stopped by another unbalanced force or friction slows it down and brings it to a complete stop. In other words: Unless you apply force, things tend to keep on doing what they were doing the first time.

Figure 1: According to Newton's first law, the marble on that bottom ramp should just keep going and

going.

Newton’s Second Law of Motion

Newton’s Second Law deals with the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it and inversely proportional on its mass. In other words: Force causes an object to accelerate, while the object’s mass resists acceleration.

Figure 2: A space shuttle blasting off into space applies to Newton’s Second Law.

Newton’s Third Law of Motion

Newton’s Third Law deals says that whenever one object exerts a force on another, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. In other words: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you push on the wall, the wall pushes back on you. If it didn’t, you would right through the wall! Same thing with the table, you push on the table, the table pushes back at you. Once again, if the table didn’t the table would collapse!

Figure 3: This pendulum here works with the Third Law of Motion.