![]() Now that we know how an object behaves when there is no outside force acting upon it, what happens when there is an outside force, such as the engines firing up in order to launch the rocket into space? That situation is described by Newton’s Second Law of Motion.Īdditional reporting by Rachel Ross, Live Science contributor. ![]() Newton's first law also applies when the rocket is gliding through space with no external forces on it, it will travel in a straight line at a constant speed forever. It would stay at rest indefinitely without any external force acting upon it. Rockets traveling through space encompass all three of Newton's laws of motion.īefore a rocket is even launched, it is at rest on the surface of Earth. If you were standing on the platform, and a passenger on that train tossed the ball out the window to you, it would not be wise to attempt to catch it in your bare hand. The train and the track both exist in their own inertial reference frames, and the speed of the ball depends on the inertial reference frame from which it is viewed. When we say that a body is in motion, one might ask, in motion compared to what? Could you catch a baseball going 100 mph in your bare hand? You could if you were riding on a train going 100 mph, and someone on that train gently tossed you the ball. Newton never explicitly described inertial reference frames, but they are a natural consequence of his First Law of Motion. ![]() An inertial reference frame can be described as a 3-dimensional coordinate system that is neither accelerating nor rotating however, it may be in uniform linear motion with respect to some other inertial reference frame. This property of massive bodies to resist changes in their state of motion is called inertia, and this leads to the concept of inertial reference frames. Basically, what Newtons First Law is saying is that objects behave predictably. What would happen, then, if the frictional force were to go to zero? Newton's stroke of genius in this case was to realize that without the presence of an outside force such as friction acting on a body in motion, there was no reason for it to stop. Newtons First Law of Motion is also known as the Law of Inertia. However, while the frictional force between the marble and the ice is less than that between the rough stone and the ice, it is still not zero. ![]() It is apparent that the force of friction is greater on the rough paving stone than on the polished marble. If that stone were a piece of polished marble, it would slide considerably farther than a rough paving stone. Take the case of a flat stone sliding on the smooth surface of a frozen lake. ![]()
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