Physics Asked by pyridine on November 29, 2020
Newton’s first law states that given an ideal situation, any force applied on a body would change its state of motion and the object would continue to pursue that state, given no other force acts on the body. However, Newton’s third law says that for every action force, there is an equal and opposite reaction force, so the assumption of the ideal and frictionless scenario is wrong, since we apply an action force, so according to Newton’s third law there must inherently be friction present. Doesn’t this nullify the presumption of the first law?
(Sorry if my thoughts do not appear clear, I tried my best to express them in words, and I would appreciate any feedback on my line of thought. Also, I’ve viewed similar questions but none seem to clarify this doubt of mine)
They are not contradictory. Contradictory would mean that they both apply in the same situation and have effects that cannot both be true together.
Instead, they apply for different situations. The first law applies when there is no force and the third law applies when there is a force. In other words, the first law describes the motion of non-interacting objects, and the third describes the dynamics of interacting pairs of objects.
Notice however, that a more modern understanding of Newton’s laws may be helpful here. Newton’s 1st law can be understood as defining inertial frames. Then Newton’s 3rd law characterized interactions between bodies in that inertial frame. This is an alternative view where again they are not contradictory but additionally they are now both active at the same time.
Correct answer by Dale on November 29, 2020
Newton's first law states that an object with no forces acting on it does not change it's velocity. Newton's third law states that if you apply a force to an object, then that object applies a force of equal magnitude and opposite direction to you. Since Newton's first law applies in the absence of force, and Newton's third law applies when a force is applied, they are not in contradiction.
Answered by David on November 29, 2020
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