Newton’s Laws of Motion

While Newton’s laws sound complicated, they’re only a superfluous way of saying something really
simple.

Newton’s 1st Law of Motion

A body at rest will remain at rest and a body in motion will continue moving in a straight line at uniform
velocity unless it is acted upon by an external force.

So, if you put a book on a table, the book will remain stationary on the table unless you apply a force to
it. If someone is driving a car at a certain speed due north, the car will continue due north at that certain
speed forever until the driver applies a force to change the direction or speed.

Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion

The acceleration of a body is directly proportional to the external resultant force acting on the body and
the body will move in the direction of a resultant force.

So, if a footballer kicks a ball with a small force, the ball will move with a small acceleration. If he kicks
the ball with a bigger force, it will move with bigger acceleration (the acceleration of the football is
directly proportional to the force the footballer applied to it). Obviously if he kicks the ball to his left,
then the ball will go to his left( the ball will move in the direction of the applied force).

Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion

[In the case of a body in equilibrium] If a body A exerts a force on a body B, then the body exerts a force
that is equal and opposite on the body A. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

So if you’re pushing on a wall with a certain force, the wall is pushing back with the same certain force in
the opposite direction. If the forces were unequal then either you or the wall would collapse.

The SI Unit of force is the Newton. On Earth, 1 Newton = 100 grams.

The man is pushing on the wall with a force of 100N.

The reason why the wall isn’t falling over is that it is
pushing back with a force of 100N in the opposite
direction

It’s like tug-o’-war. Both teams are pulling in opposite

directions. If they’re both pulling with the same force,
then the rope will not move and neither team will
win. But if one team pulls with more force then the
resultant force will be on their side and they will win.