eli5 How can a car move according to Newton’s third law?

201 views

So a car moves, because the wheels exert a force on the ground which exert an opposite force back on the wheels causing it to move forward. The car then exerts this force on the air and the air back onto the car. Shouldn’t the resulting force on the car be 0 Newton then? Because the force the ground exerts on the car is the same as the force the air exerts on the car, thus cancelling each ofher out?

In: 0

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

> Because the force the ground exerts on the car is the same as the force the air exerts on the car, thus cancelling each ofher out?

Sure, but *at best* that should mean that the car should move forward with half of the force, with the other half propelling the ground. The car moves forward, though, because the ground weighs *waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay* more than the car. The force is equal and opposite but since the ground ain’t gonna move much, the car moves a lot.

The same thing happens with the air. The car weighs *waaaaaaaaaay* more than the air bumping into it so although the force is equal and opposite, the car ain’t gonna stop moving much so the air moves a lot (out of the way).

You are viewing 1 out of 6 answers, click here to view all answers.