Have you ever tripped and fell? If so, you’ve probably experienced something called gravity. You probably know what gravity is, but who came up with it? That would be Isaac Newton. You probably learned about him and his 3 laws in science class. But what were those 3 laws?
His first law states that an object at rest remains at rest, or, if in motion, remains in motion at a constant velocity unless acted on by a net external force. To kind of dumb it down, this means that if something isn’t moving it wont move unless an external force moves it. The other part means that if an object is in motion it won’t stop until an outside force stops it. Some examples could be when you’re driving in a car and you slam on the brakes, you keep moving forward while the car is stopping. That’s why seatbelts are so important. You’d keep going into the windshield if it wasn’t there because the car is stopping but your body isn’t attached to the car so you’re still in motion.
His second law says that the rate of momentum is directly and proportional to the force applied to the object and takes place in the direction in which force is applied. In simple terms, if you use more force, it generates more acceleration for a given mass, but the more mass means less acceleration from even if the same amount of force is applied. An example of this could be if you were pushing an empty cardboard box, when you push it as hard as you can it goes pretty far. But when you put a 50-pound weight in that box and you push it as hard as you can, it doesn’t go nearly as far. That’s because it has a lot more mass, so gravity takes more of an effect on it.
Newton’s final law is his most well-known. The law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. One example of this would be bouncing a ball. When you bounce the ball on the ground it will bounce up with the same force as you pushed down. Another example would be when you try to jump off a kayak, when you jump you don’t move much if at all. The kayak moves away from you in the opposite direction that you jumped.
Isaac Newton published these laws of motion in 1687. Isn’t it crazy that these laws still stand today, over 300 years later? Isaac also contributed to bettering the understanding of math by inventing calculus and also provided a clear understanding of optics. Optics is a science that deals with the nature and properties of light and the effect that it undergoes and produces according to Merriam-Webster. So, next time you fall down don’t blame it on the person that tripped you, blame it on gravity.
