Physics First

Name

POGIL: Paradoxes of Newtons Third Law Whenever an agent exerts a force on an object, the object exerts an equal and opposite force back on the agent. This is Newtons third law of motion, a law tested by experiment and shown to be valid in multiple instances. However, sometimes we observe situations that seem to violate this law. This is known as a paradox. It is a situation that appears to violate the law, but through careful analysis we can see that the law still holds. We will look at a few paradoxes of Newtons third law in this POGIL. The Horse-Car Paradox 1. Suppose the horse in the picture below pulls the car to the left.

(a) Identify the reaction forces to each of the following action forces that act on the car.

i.

The horse pulls the car to the left with a tension force of 400 N.

ii. The ground exerts a 200 N friction force on the car to the right.

iii. The Earth pulls down on the car with a gravitational force of 10,000 N.

iv. The ground pushes up on the car to support it with 10,000 N.

(b) Identify the reaction forces to each of the following action forces that act on the horse.

Physics First

Name

i.

The car pulls the horse to the right with a tension force of 400 N.

ii. The ground exerts a 500 N friction force on the horse to the left.

iii. The Earth pulls down on the horse with a gravitational force of 1100 N.

iv. The ground pushes up on the horse to support it with 1100 N.

(c) Notice that when the horse pulls forward on the car there is an equal and opposite force pulling back on the horse. It seems that these two forces should cancel each other (for a net force of zero) and the car and horse will never be able to move. How, then, can the horse ever cause the car to move?

The Splattered Bug on the Windshield Paradox 2. In the drawing below, a tiny bug hits the windshield of a car traveling at 60 km/h.

(a) Which object experiences the greater force of impact, the bug or the car? Justify your answer.

(b) Given your answer to part (a), why does the force of impact have a greater effect on the bugs motion than it does on the cars motion? Justify your answer.