Newton's Laws
Newton described force as the ability to cause a mass to accelerate.
- Newton's first law states that an object in motion will stay in motion unless a force is applied. This law deals with inertia, which is a property of matter that resists acceleration and depends only on mass.
- Newton's second law states that force is equal to the rate of change of momentum.
- Newton's third law states that for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction.
Read more about this topic: Dynamics (mechanics)
Famous quotes containing the words newton and/or laws:
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“The chess-board is the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)