Art and Science Newton’s Third Law: Action = Reaction

Abraham Tamir*

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000176

Received: July 01, 2017;   Published: July 07, 2017

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Abstract

Newton’s Third Law has been active in the universe as from its creation although it was stated by him only in 1687. Isaac Newton, an English natural philosopher and the most original and influential thinker in the history of science was born on 1642 and died in 1727. His three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, which were the keystone of the scientific revolution in the 17^th century, made it possible to design airplanes, spaceships and satellites, etc. The third law states that when one body exerts a force on the other body, then the second body exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body, namely, action = reaction. According to Newton, forces always appear in pairs where each force acts on the other body. Mathematically the law is expressed by F12 = F21 where F designates force, 1 designates object 1 and 2 is object 2 where F12 is the force exerted by body 1 on body 2 and similarly F21.

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