So, from what I understand, Newton’s third law says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
I’m having a very hard time wrapping my head around it, as it seems as though if his law worked the way I interprete it to, pushing an object or denting an object would be impossible.
For example,
If someone were to push a book on a table, the force they applied on the book to push it, should be countered by an equal and opposite reaction force, therefore not allowing them to move the book.
In another example, if someone were to push a piece of metal, there should be an equal and opposite reaction force (normal contact force?) which would not allow the person to move the metal (can’t dent it), no matter how much force they use.
I guess what I would like to know would be why this is not the case in the two above examples, and what is it that I am not interpreting correctly with Newton’s third law.
Thank you!!
In: Physics
You push on the book and the book push on you with the same force. This is why the harder you push the book, the stronger you feel the book.
Now what is important is friction. You see you have friction to the ground and the book have friction to the table. The force you put on the book is higher than the friction the book have with the table, so the book will move, but the force the book put on you is lower than your friction on the ground so you don’t move.
Now if you were to push on a large boulder, while you are on ice, the situation would be different. Now your friction to the ice is low and the friction of this boulder to the ground is very high. So the force you apply to the boulder isn low to the friction of the boulder and it doesn’t move. But the force the boulder push you back with is higher than your friction to the ice, so your feet gonna start to slider back.
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