If every action has an equal and opposite reaction, how come an object dropped from a certain height doesn’t bounce back to the original height?

Question

If every action has an equal and opposite reaction, how come an object dropped from a certain height doesn’t bounce back to the original height?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Quite simply because it isn’t about the action and reaction. That is a sadly widespread misworded of Newtons 3rd law. That wording focuses your mind on the results, which isn’t what is equal. It’s the forces that are equal. For every force exerted by an object there is an equal and opposite force acting back on the object.

There ball strikes the ground with 100 Newtons of force. The ground strikes back at the ball with 100 Newtons (equal and opposite FORCES)

The result is dictated by the f=ma. The ball bounces back a lot, as the mass is small. The Earth bounces away as well… But it’s huge so you don’t notice the extremely tiny acceleration.