Newton’s Laws Of Motion

There’s a poem by Alexander Pope, which goes:

Nature and nature’s laws hid in night

God said ‘Let Newton be!’ And all was light

That poem seems to illustrate the significance of Newton’s laws quite accurately. Let’s take a look at what these laws were:

Newton’s First Law: if a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain that way unless it is acted upon by a force.

This means that if an astronaut in space was pushed, even slightly, they would drift away forever, without anything stopping them. If you’ve watched any sci-fi movies, you’ll know this is a fact producers love to take advantage for more drama.

Newton’s Second Law: The rate of change of the momentum of a body is equal in both magnitude and direction to the force imposed on it… woah, that sounds wordy, doesn’t it? Well, there’s probably a version of this law you’re more familiar with:

F = ma

The force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration.

This tells us that unless there is an imbalance in forces, creating a resultant force, a body will not accelerate. It also shows why objects with greater mass require a larger force to move.

Newton’s Third Law: when two bodies interact, they apply forces to each-other which are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. This is also known as the law of action and reaction.

This is the reason why you jump by pushing down on the floor, and the reaction force pushes you up. Or why, when in a swimming pool, pushing the wall with your foot causes you to be pushed forward into the water.

Newton’s laws describe the ground rules of the motion we observe in our day to day lives, which is why they’re so significant. They formed the basis for classical mechanics and paved the way for most of the physics we have today. Newton’s laws are behind almost all of the technological advancements and scientific developments that we find in the present day.

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We must give thanks to this amazing guy,

For without Newton, rockets would not fly!

(Sorry Alexander Pope, I totally ruined your poem)