Sir Isaac Newton: It's a Wonderful World of Motion

Most folks know who Isaac Newton is. However, how many of us can state his three laws of motion? Well, here is your chance to amaze your friends--at least, yourself--with a bit of knowledge. I, personally, can't stand physics, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand the basics.

So, are you ready to get smart?

Okay! Enough said. Here we go...

According to Sir Isaac Newton's Principia,

1) "Every object continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it."

To understand this, imagine an incredibly large and obese fat man reclining upon a chair. He is next to a pool. The sun is glistening upon his skin. The perspiration swelters and sweats from his near naked body. In his own way, he is altogether lovely and picturesque, isn't he? At any rate, according to Newton's first law of motion, a fat man will remain at rest, and continue to remain at rest, until something along the lines of hunger (or, perhaps, the heat) acts upon him. The same thing goes if the fat man were to somehow manage to get himself up and put himself in motion. Unless something came along and caught his attention--take a meat sandwich, for instance--the fat man would continue on his merry way indefinitely. Well, in theory, anyway. Simple enough? Okay, next...

2) "The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on the object, is in the direction of the net force, and is inversely proportional to the mass of the object."