Does Newtons 3rd law corespond with pressure?

AI Thread Summary
When a sharp pencil is pushed against a desk, the tip experiences the same force as the desk but has a significantly smaller surface area. Pressure, defined as P = F / A, indicates that the pressure exerted by the pencil tip is greater than that on the desk due to its smaller area. This leads to the conclusion that while the forces are equal, the pressures differ because of the varying contact surfaces. The discussion emphasizes that only the contact surface area matters for pressure calculations. Thus, the pressures are not the same, as the resultant pressure is influenced by the area of contact.
zeromodz
Messages
244
Reaction score
0
If I were to take a standard sharp led pencil and push it on my desk, the tip of pencil will feel the same force as the force exerted on the desk, but what about the pressure?

Since pressure is defined as:

P = F / A

The surface area of the tip of the sharp pencil is far smaller than the surface area of the desk, so does that mean that the pressures will be different? Or are they the same due to a resultant pressure?


Thanks.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Only contact surface counts, and it is identical for both objects.
 
The rope is tied into the person (the load of 200 pounds) and the rope goes up from the person to a fixed pulley and back down to his hands. He hauls the rope to suspend himself in the air. What is the mechanical advantage of the system? The person will indeed only have to lift half of his body weight (roughly 100 pounds) because he now lessened the load by that same amount. This APPEARS to be a 2:1 because he can hold himself with half the force, but my question is: is that mechanical...
Hello everyone, Consider the problem in which a car is told to travel at 30 km/h for L kilometers and then at 60 km/h for another L kilometers. Next, you are asked to determine the average speed. My question is: although we know that the average speed in this case is the harmonic mean of the two speeds, is it also possible to state that the average speed over this 2L-kilometer stretch can be obtained as a weighted average of the two speeds? Best regards, DaTario
Some physics textbook writer told me that Newton's first law applies only on bodies that feel no interactions at all. He said that if a body is on rest or moves in constant velocity, there is no external force acting on it. But I have heard another form of the law that says the net force acting on a body must be zero. This means there is interactions involved after all. So which one is correct?
Back
Top