Newton's Three Laws of Motion
Uploaded by Gotskillz on Dec 20, 2004
Isaac Newton was born on Christmas day in 1642, in Lincolnshire, England. Newton attended Trinity College in 1661 and had both his Bachelor of Arts and his Master of Arts by 1669. That same year he became the associate of the French Academy of Sciences. He was elected to Parilment, then appointed a warden, and finally, President of the Royal Society. Newton was a master of science and mathematics. He discovered calculus, before Leibniz' became popular. Perhaps Newton's most popular discovery, though, was gravity. As the story goes, Sir Isaac Newton was resting under a tree one day in his garden, when an apple fell from it and hit him on the head. Thus, he discovered gravity. The earth's gravitational pull pulls objects toward it. However, many people believe that this is only a myth created to simply illustrate Newton's discovery.
Along with Newton's many discoveries, the three laws of motion are famous. These include inertia, acceleration, and the idea that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Inertia is the idea that a body in motion will remain in motion, and a body at rest will remain at rest. For example, if I were to throw a baseball into the air, it would keep going until grasvity pulled it back down to earth. However, if I left it sitting on a table, it would lie there until some kind of force were to move it. If I were to push a skateboard across the floor with all of my might, the skateboard would accelerate more than if I gave it a light shove, simply because there was more force behind it. More force = more acceleration. If I were sitting on a swing and someone were to grab hold of the swing, pull it backwards, and release, I would move forward in the opposite direction. This demonstrates the idea that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.