Monday, February 2, 2009

Newton's Laws of Motion







Sir Isaac Newton, during the years of 1665 and 1666, developed three laws of motion - rest, constant motion, and accelerated motion. Newton’s First Law of Motion says that an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion at constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Constant velocity means the same speed in the same direction. Newton called the tendency of objects to remain in motion or stay at rest inertia. Inertia is the property of matter that resists any change in motion.
Newton’s Second Law of Motion shows how force, mass, and acceleration are related. Force = Mass x Acceleration where mass is in kilograms and acceleration in meters/second/second; force is measured in a unit called newtons (N). For example, 1 N = 1 kg x 1m/sec/sec
The Third Law of Motion states, that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, every force must have an equal and opposite force. Basically, all forces must come in pairs.
An example of Newton’s First Law is, when you are skateboarding, you keep rolling until an unbalanced force, such as your own foot or a rock on the ground, stops it. An example of Newton’s Second Law is, if you try to kick a brick wall it does not move, but when you kick a soccer ball with a kick of the same force, the soccer ball will move. This is because the mass of the brick wall is more than the mass of the soccer ball. An example of Newton’s Third Law is, when a rocket takes of from the ground. The rocket pushes on the ground to get pulled up.
In my opinion, Sir Isaac Newton made an important discovery in physics that revolutionized the way we think today. Newton’s laws still form the foundation on which all of physics is based.




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