(FOM) Newton's 3rd Law of Motion Lesson

Newton's 3rd Law of Motion

We have made it to the last law of Newton's three laws of motion, Newton's 3^rd Law.  Newton's 3^rd Law states that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.  It is important to note that this is not a cause/effect type relationship.  This is looking at whenever one body exerts a force on a second body, the first body experiences a force that is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force that it exerts. You have experienced this whenever you have stubbed your toe or thrown a ball. To demonstrate and explain Newton's 3^rd Law, please watch the following video created by the European Space Agency.

As you have learned from the video above, this law shows that forces always occur in pairs, and one body cannot exert a force on another without experiencing a force itself. We sometimes refer to this law loosely as "action-reaction," where the force exerted is the action and the force experienced as a consequence is the reaction.

Examples:

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