Newton's Three Laws of Motion: 1.

Newton's First Law: An object that is at rest will remain at rest and an object that is moving in a straight line with constant velocity will continue to do so, if the net force (the sum of all forces acting on the object) is equal to zero. Newton generalized Galileo's study of motion to fit motion in any direction. His first law is often referred to as the law of inertia. Inertia is the tendency of an object to resist change, as in this case, a change in its motion. 2. Newton's Second Law: The force exerted on an object is a function of both the object's mass and the rate of acceleration it experiences as a result of the force. This means that force is both proportional to mass and to acceleration when one of the two remains constant, but mass and acceleration are inversely proportional to one another when force remains constant. The equation for Newton's Second Law

F=ma
F is Force, m is mass, and a is acceleration. 3. Newton's Third Law: Whenever one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts a force on the first object. Sometimes this law is described as saying "to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". It must always be remembered that the action and the reaction force are acting on different objects. As you think about this look at your hand when you are pushing against a heavy object. That the shape of your hand is affected is evidence that a force is acting on it and it is not just exerting a force on something else. You can feel the force as well and if you are pushing hard enough, it is pushing back on you hard enough to make your hand hurt. An ice skater could move across the ice by pushing against something, and the something will push back on the skater. For example, a stationary skater in the middle of a low friction smooth frozen pond holding a handful of baseballs could move off the ice by throwing one ball at a time until they have reached the edge of the pond The as the each ball is thrown (pushed) forward with a force it pushes backwards with an equal but opposite force. This too is how rocket engines work the hot exhaust gas is pushed out the rear of the engine while at the same time the hot gas is pushing the back on the rocket. As a final example, consider when you walk or drive a car. You or the car tire are pushed forward by the earth at the same time your foot or the car (tire) is pushing back on the earth. Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation: Newton was able to express his law in terms that applied to the motion of planets orbiting the sun. His law agreed with Kepler's third law which provided proof that he had he and Kepler were on the right track and in agreement about the observable known universe. His law

defined the force of gravity in terms of the mass of the two objects exerting gravitational force on each other and the distance which separates them. His law says that the Force of gravity between two objects varies directly with the masses of the two objects and varies inversely with the distance separating them squared. The Equation for Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation

Fg m1 m2 / d2. (a proportionality) Fg = G m1 m2 / d2. (an equality)

Where G is a numerical constant changing the proportionality into an equality. Unfortunately Newton did not have the means (the equipment) to measure very small gravitational forces in a laboratory experimental setting so he wasn't able to determine the value for G. It wasn't until around 100 years later that a person by the name of Henry Cavendish was able to experimentally determine the value for G and calculations using Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation could be done. Modern Physics (The 20th century, 1900-2000) The physics coming down to us from the past which focusses very much on motion and the nature of the universe was further defined and perfected by Isaac Newton was dominant until the beginning of the 20th century. This physics is sometimes called Newtonian physics or more often generally referred to as classical physics. This physics is adequate for most everyday phenomena involving motion where relatively large massive objects moving with relatively slow velocities are involved. By the early 1900's though a very famous person by the name of Albert Einstein came along and shook up the world by saying the universe is not a big mechanical gadget like a lot of people who understood newton were saying. Instead it is a much more complicated and at the same time curiously interesting and different than what Newton's view gave us. The universe is very different when you consider that small high speed particles do not behave as would be predicted using Newton's Laws. Instead they behave according to a new set of principles that require one to open one's mind to exciting new principles and century of research into the unknown of the very large and the very small. Einstein kicked off the 20th century with his theory of relativity and we left the last century with emphasis on quantum theory. This is as far as this summary goes for now. Understand that the information provided here is just the proverbial first step into the 1,000 mile journey. If you choose to take it, you'll enjoy it.