Sir Isaac Newton's Three Laws of Motion

We have all heard the story of the apple falling on Newton's head while he was sitting against the tree, thus

giving him the sudden idea for the Universal Law of Gravity. This, as I am sure most of us know, is not really

what happened. A more accurate version would probably be, Newton observed an apple falling from a tree

and started contemplating the physics of the apple's fall. The acceleration experienced by the apple, which

started at zero when hanging in the tree, then increased as the apple fell. This as Newton reasoned from his

second law of motion, means there must be a force acting upon the apple in order to cause the acceleration,

this force we will call gravity. Thus giving us the acceleration due to this force as "acceleration due to gravity,"

a term most of us have probably heard. This idea is known as Newton's Universal Law of Gravity. This idea

is basically Newton's second law of motion which we will look at more in depth. We will also look at Newton's

other two laws of motion.

Newton's 1st Law

For us in everyday life it is slightly hard for us to comprehend Newton's fist law of motion. This is due to the fact

in real life there is not frictionless surface or even space for that matter. However if we imagine for the moment

that there is no friction or air resistance or anything else of the sort we can then go on and look at Newton's 1st

law of motion.

*

An object at rest remains at rest and an object in motion

continues with a constant velocity in a straight line

unless an external force is applied to either object.

One way for us to see how this works is to take a look at an air track. This is a device that essentially give...

... middle of paper ...

...or frustration with his researches, Newton retired from his research. He left Cambridge and

took up a government position in London. In 1703 Newton was elected the president of the Royal Society and was reelected

up until his death in 1727. In 1705, Newton was the first scientist to be so honored for his work that he was knighted

by Queen Anne. Newton's life was not an easy one and was plagued by his rage which came so easily when he was

being criticized. The issue as to whether Newton or Leibniz was the first to invent calculus was definitely one cause for

Newton's irrational temper.

As we can see Newton had quite the life and although it was not an easy one he definitely has left us with much

to contemplate as well as use in our own researches. He may not have been the most liked of people but there

is no doubt of his genius quality.