Have you ever wondered why a ball rolls so far when you push it but the wall in your house doesn’t move no matter how hard you try? Or maybe why a feather falls slowly but a book falls straight to the ground? Believe it or not, there are answers to those questions, and it all starts with a man named Isaac Newton. In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica or The Mathematic Principles of Natural Philosophy. Even though more than 300 years has gone by Newton’s book is still considered one of the most important scientific works ever published. In it, he explains three basic principles, or laws, that explain how objects move and how they are affected by outside forces. Newton’s First Law Newton’s first law of motion is a single sentence: “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an external force.” What does this mean? The easiest way to think about this law is to imagine a ball sitting on a table. The ball just sits on the table without moving until you apply a force to it, such as hitting it. Once hit, the ball will roll until an unbalanced force makes it stop or change direction. While it is …show more content…
When we push our ball it rolls. The action of pushing the ball causes an equal and opposite reaction that makes the ball roll. How far the ball rolls depends on how much force we use to push it. Seeing the reaction with a ball is easy, but there are situations where it is much harder to see. Think about pushing against a wall in your house. Chances are, the wall doesn’t move, but your hand may flatten against it depending on how hard you are pushing. This happens because while you are pushing against the wall – or exerting a force against the wall – the wall is also pushing against you. We can only feel the forces that are being used on us, not the force we use on another