Newton’s laws of motion: Quick Facts

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Title page of Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687, featuring large Latin text and publication details in a bordered layout.

Silhouette of a teen boy shooting a basketball toward a hoop outdoors with the sun setting behind him.

Two elephants pull a log in opposite directions with equal force, keeping the log stationary to illustrate Newton's law that balanced forces result in no movement.

How are immovable objects and unstoppable forces the same?

Newton's third law of motion explained

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Topics

law of force law of action and reaction law of inertia equation of motion motion inertia Celestial mechanics dynamics Kepler’s laws of planetary motion Mach’s principle Newton’s law of gravitation kinematics kinetics electrogasdynamics

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Key People

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

English physicist and mathematician

Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi at work in the wireless room of his yacht Electra, c. 1920.

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Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

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Italian-born physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi draws a diagram at a blackboard with mathematical equations. circa 1950.

Physics and Natural Law