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
Force does not always result in motion (example: pushing on a building). So the book/metal does push you with the same amount of force, but since you weigh a lot more and your feet have friction with the ground, you don’t move backwards. You’re only pushing hard enough to move the book, not make your feet slide backwards (which would require a much harder push against something heavier than you).
If you were on ice skates on ice and you used the same amount of force to push the book, your feet wouldn’t have friction so you would move backwards from the book’s force.
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