Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that form the basis for classical mechanics.

They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and its motion due to those forces. They have been expressed in several different ways over nearly three centuries, and can be summarized as follows: 1. First law: The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force. 2. Second law: The acceleration a of a body is parallel and directly proportional to the net force F and inversely proportional to the mass m, i.e.,F = ma. 3. Third law: The mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite and collinear. The three laws of motion were first compiled by Sir Isaac Newton in his work Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687. Newton used them to explain and investigate the motion of many physical objects and systems. For example, in the third volume of the text, Newton showed that these laws of motion, combined with his law of universal gravitation, explained Kepler's laws of planetary motion.

Review: 1st Law of Motion

An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This First Law of Motion is often called "the law of inertia". Inertia = the resistance an object has to a change in its state of motion.

Review: 2nd Law of Motion

Newton's second law of motion explains how an object will change velocity if it is pushed or pulled upon. Firstly, this law states that if you do place a force on an object, it will accelerate, i.e., change its velocity, and it will change its velocity in the direction of the force. It Accelerates in the direction that you push it. Secondly, this acceleration is directly proportional to the force. For example, if you are pushing on an object, causing it to accelerate, and then you push, say, three times harder, the acceleration will be three times greater. If you push twice as hard, It will accelerate twice as much. Thirdly, this acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the object. For example, if you are pushing equally on two objects, and one of the objects has five times more mass than the other, it will accelerate at one fifth the acceleration of the other.

If it gains twice that mass it will accelerate half as much. Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of the object being accelerated) the greater the amount of force needed (to accelerate the object). The Second Law of Motion can be expressed as a mathematical equation: F=MA or FORCE = MASS times ACCELERATION

FORCE = MASS times ACCELERATION FORCE = 1000 x .05 FORCE = 50 NEWTONS

Review: 3rd Law of Motion

The third law states that for every force there is an equal and opposite force. For example, if you push on a wall, it will push back on you as hard as you are pushing on it.

If you push on the object (mass) it pushes back on you. For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action.
The terms "action" and "reaction" refer to the action force andreaction force. In addition, the term "equal" means equal in magnitude and the term "opposite" means opposite directions.

Sir Isaac Newton first presented his three laws of motion in the "Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis" in 1686. His first law states that every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force. This is normally taken as the definition of inertia. The key point here is that if there is no net force resulting from unbalanced forces acting on an object (if all the external forces cancel each other out), then the object will maintain a constant velocity. If that velocity is zero, then the object remains at rest. And if an additional external force is applied, the velocity will change because of the force. The amount of the change in velocity is determined by Newton's second law of motion. There are many excellent examples of Newton's first law involving aerodynamics. The motion of an airplane when the pilot changes the throttle setting of the engine is described by the first law. The motion of a ball falling down through the atmosphere, or a model rocket being launched up into the atmosphere are both examples of Newton's first law. The motion of a kite when the wind changes can also be described by the first law. We have created separate pages which describe each of these examples in more detail to help you understand this important physical principle.

Sir Isaac Newton first presented his three laws of motion in the "Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis" in 1686. His second law defines a force to be equal to the change in momentum with a change in time. Momentum is defined to be the mass m of an object times its velocity V. Let us assume that we have an airplane at a point "0" defined by its location X0 and time t0. The airplane has a mass m0and travels at velocity V0. The airplane is subjected to an external force F and moves to a point "1", which is described by a new location X1 and time t1. The mass and velocity of the airplane change during the flight to values m1 and V1. Newton's second law can help us determine the new values of V1 and m1, if we know how big the force F is. Let us just take the difference between the conditions at point "1" and the conditions at point "0". F = (m1 * V1 - m0 * V0) / (t1 - t0) Newton's second law talks about changes in momentum (m * V) so, at this point, we can't separate out how much the mass changed and how much the velocity changed. We only know how much product (m * V) changed. Let us assume that the mass stays a constant value equal to m. This assumption is pretty good for an airplane, the only change in mass would be for the fuel burned between point "1" and point "0". The weight of the fuel is probably small relative to the weight of the rest of the airplane, especially if we only look at small changes in time.. If we were discussing the flight of a baseball, then certainly the mass remains a constant. But if we were discussing the flight of a bottle rocket, then the mass does not remain a constant and we can only look at changes in momentum. For a constant mass m, Newton's second law looks like: F = m * (V1 - V0) / (t1 - t0) The change in velocity divided by the change in time is the definition of the acceleration a. The second law then reduces to the more familiar product of a mass and an acceleration: F=m*a

Remember that this relation is only good for objects that have a constant mass. This equation tells us that an object subjected to an external force will accelerate and that the amount of the acceleration is proportional to the size of the force. The amount of acceleration is also inversely proportional to the mass of the object; for equal forces, a heavier object will experience less acceleration than a lighter object. Considering the momentum equation, a force causes a change in velocity; and likewise, a change in velocity generates a force. The equation works both ways. The velocity, force, acceleration, and momentum have both a magnitude and a direction associated with them. Scientists and mathematicians call this a vector quantity. The equations shown here are actually vector equations and can be applied in each of the component directions. We have only looked at one direction, and, in general, an object moves in all three directions (up-down, left-right, forward-back). The motion of an aircraft resulting from aerodynamic forces, aircraft weight, and thrust can be computed by using the second law of motion.

Sir Isaac Newton first presented his three laws of motion in the "Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis" in 1686. His third law states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, if object A exerts a force on object B, then object B also exerts an equal and opposite force on object A. Notice that the forces are exerted on different objects. For aircraft, the principal of action and reaction is very important. It helps to explain the generation of lift from an airfoil. In this problem, the air is deflected downward by the action of the airfoil, and in reaction the wing is pushed upward. Similarly, for a spinning ball, the air is deflected to one side, and the ball reacts by moving in the opposite direction. A jet engine also produces thrust through action and reaction. The engine produces hot exhaust gases which flow out the back of the engine. In reaction, a thrusting force is produced in the opposite direction.