- #1
phosgenic
- 5
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This is going to be a stupid question, for which I apologize. I am probably over-thinking things but my reasoning is flawed somewhere because when I think about Newton's Third Law and it's application to real-world examples, I can't understand how objects move at all, whether accelerating or not.
For example, me pushing a book on a table. I push the book with some force, and the book pushes back on me with a force of equal magnitude and opposite direction. So what is getting the book to move if the magnitude of my force on the book isn't greater than the magnitude of the force of the book back on me? I am missing something here, obviously.
An even stupider example that I can't figure out: I drop a ball off a building. The gravitational force from the Earth pulls the ball towards it, and the ball pulls the Earth towards it with a force of equal magnitude and opposite direction... yet it is the ball is moving.
Or a hockey stick moving a puck, the stick applies force to the puck, puck applies force of same magnitude in opposite direction, yet the puck moves.
Please explain (even if it's so elementary it's ridiculous) what I am missing in my thinking.
For example, me pushing a book on a table. I push the book with some force, and the book pushes back on me with a force of equal magnitude and opposite direction. So what is getting the book to move if the magnitude of my force on the book isn't greater than the magnitude of the force of the book back on me? I am missing something here, obviously.
An even stupider example that I can't figure out: I drop a ball off a building. The gravitational force from the Earth pulls the ball towards it, and the ball pulls the Earth towards it with a force of equal magnitude and opposite direction... yet it is the ball is moving.
Or a hockey stick moving a puck, the stick applies force to the puck, puck applies force of same magnitude in opposite direction, yet the puck moves.
Please explain (even if it's so elementary it's ridiculous) what I am missing in my thinking.
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