Newton’s Laws By: Colin Paslay

Sir Isaac Newton He was born on January 4, 1643, and died March 31, 1727. Isaac Newton had many great achievements in his life. He was a successful physician, mathematician, and astronomer, just to name a couple of things he did. A well respected man, Newton was considered one of the most influential people in human history.

Newton’s Laws of Motion Sir Isaac Newton came up with special laws called the laws of motion, which help us understand how force, motion and Inertia all work together. Have you ever gone around a curve in the road while riding in a car, and your body went the opposite direction of the curve? Well that is caused by inertia. Inertia causes your body to want to continue on in a straight line. The more mass an object has, the more inertia that same object will have.

Newton’s First Law Newton’s first law of motion states that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.

First Law Examples Want some examples of the first law of motion? Well here they are. If you roll a ball along the ground, the ball will roll on and on until an outside force such as friction or a wall acts upon the ball, causing it to stop. Now if there was a ball on the ground just sitting there, it’s going to sit there until someone kicks it, or another outside force acts upon it.

Newton’s Second Law Newton’s second law of motion states that the greater the force, the greater the acceleration.

Second Law Examples Now that you’ve seen the second law, it’s time for some examples. Say that you barely push someone. That person isn’t going to accelerate very fast, because there wasn’t much force involved. Now if you push the same person with a lot more force, the person would move much faster in less time, giving them a greater acceleration.

Newton’s Third Law Newton’s third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Third Law Examples Here’s an example for the third law of motion. Say you and another person run at each other, jump, and run into each other in mid-air. The reaction for that is that you and the other person will naturally back up once you land on the ground, creating an equal reaction to the collision.