Isaac Newton Changes in motion must be imposed against the tendency of an
object to retain its state of motion. In the absence of net forces, a
Sir Isaac Newton PRS (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27[a]) Newton's laws of motion moving object tends to move along a straight line path indefinitely.
was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian,
and author (described in his own day as a "natural philosopher") Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that, together, Newton's second law
who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of laid the foundation for classical mechanics. They describe the
all time, and a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book relationship between a body and the forces acting upon it, and its The second law states that the rate of change of momentum of a
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical motion in response to those forces. More precisely, the first law body is directly proportional to the force applied, and this change
Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, laid the defines the force qualitatively, the second law offers a quantitative in momentum takes place in the direction of the applied force.
foundations of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal measure of the force, and the third asserts that a single isolated
contributions to optics, and shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm force doesn't exist. These three laws have been expressed in
Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus. several ways, over nearly three centuries,[a] and can be
summarised as follows:
The second law can also be stated in terms of an object's
In Principia, Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal
First law: In an inertial frame of reference, an object either acceleration. Since Newton's second law is valid only for constant-
gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint until it
remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless mass systems, m can be taken outside the differentiation operator
was superseded by the theory of relativity. Newton used his
acted upon by a force. by the constant factor rule in differentiation. Thus,
mathematical description of gravity to prove Kepler's laws of
planetary motion, account for tides, the trajectories of comets, the Second law: In an inertial frame of reference, the vector sum
precession of the equinoxes and other phenomena, eradicating of the forces F on an object is equal to the mass m of that object
doubt about the Solar System's heliocentricity. He demonstrated multiplied by the acceleration a of the object: F = ma.
that the motion of objects on Earth and celestial bodies could be where F is the net force applied, m is the mass of the body, and a is
accounted for by the same principles. Newton's inference that the Third law: When one body exerts a force on a second body, the body's acceleration. Thus, the net force applied to a body
Earth is an oblate spheroid was later confirmed by the geodetic the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude produces a proportional acceleration. In other words, if a body is
measurements of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, and opposite in direction on the first body. accelerating, then there is a force on it. An application of this
convincing most European scientists of the superiority of notation is the derivation of G Subscript C.
Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems.
Newton's first law
Newton's third law
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed The first law states that if the net force (the vector sum of all
a sophisticated theory of colour based on the observation that a forces acting on an object) is zero, then the velocity of the object is The magnitudes of both forces are equal, but they have opposite
prism separates white light into the colours of the visible constant. Velocity is a vector quantity which expresses both the directions, as dictated by Newton's third law.
spectrum. His work on light was collected in his highly influential object's speed and the direction of its motion; therefore, the
book Opticks, published in 1704. He also formulated an empirical statement that the object's velocity is constant is a statement that
law of cooling, made the first theoretical calculation of the speed both its speed and the direction of its motion are constant.
of sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian fluid. In Consequently,
addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician Newton
contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial An object that is at rest will stay at rest unless a force acts upon it.
theorem to non-integer exponents, developed a method for An object that is in motion will not change its velocity unless a
approximating the roots of a function, and classified most of force acts upon it.
the cubic plane curves.
This is known as uniform motion. An object continues to do
whatever it happens to be doing unless a force is exerted upon it. If
it is at rest, it continues in a state of rest. If an object is moving, it
continues to move without turning or changing its speed. This is
evident in space probes that continuously move in outer space.
The third law states that all forces between two objects exist in
equal magnitude and opposite direction: if one object A exerts a
force FA on a second object B, then B simultaneously exerts a force
FB on A, and the two forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in
direction: FA = −FB. The third law means that all forces are
interactions between different bodies, or different regions within
one body, and thus that there is no such thing as a force that is not
accompanied by an equal and opposite force. In some situations,
the magnitude and direction of the forces are determined entirely
by one of the two bodies, say Body A; the force exerted by Body A
on Body B is called the "action", and the force exerted by Body B
on Body A is called the "reaction". This law is sometimes referred
to as the action-reaction law, with FA called the "action" and FB
the "reaction".
