Newton's Laws of Motion

Newton questioned the interacting force an outside agent exerted on another to change its state of motion. He concluded that this interaction was mutual so that when you exert a force on something you get the feeling the other is exerting a force on you. Newton's third law of motion states: When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body exerts an equal and opposite force on the first body.

In the second law, only forces exerted on a body are important in determining its acceleration. The third law speaks about a pair of forces equal in magnitude and opposite in direction which are exerted on and by two different bodies. This law is useful in determining forces acting on an object by knowing forces it exerts. For example, a book sitting on a table has a net force of zero. Therefore, an upward force equal to its weight must be exerted by the table on the book. According to the third law the book exerts an equal force downward on the table. When two objects are in contact they exert equal and opposite forces on each other and these forces are perpendicular to the contacting surface.