Newton's Third Law of Motion
I can describe and predict forces that act on bodies using Newton’s third law.
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General
Newton's third law of motion states that whenever an object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force back onto the first object. This fact of nature is all around us and describes motion or lack thereof in many different systems.
Standards
NGSS:
MS-PS2-2
MS-PS2-1
Learning Objective
Students will be able to describe and predict forces that act on bodies using Newton’s third law of motion.
Introduction
This lesson begins with a review of Newton's second law of motion, which states that the acceleration of an object depends on the mass of the object and the amount of force applied to it.
Instruction
Students will discuss skateboarding and how Newton's third law can be applied to it. Explain Newton's Third Law. Students will also look at a picture of a tractor and a trailer and draw and level the forces that are equal and opposite. They will do the same with a picture of a car accident.
Discuss action and reaction force pairs (e.g., Every action has an equal and opposite reaction). Next, students will work through different scenarios involving Newton's Third Law.
Quiz
Students will respond to ten true/false and multiple-choice questions.
Closing
Have students look around the room and identify other places where forces regularly act on one another to generate motion.
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