Force and Motion
Newton’s Three Laws
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to
- State Newton’s Three Laws of Motion
- Compare and contrast with Ancient Greek (Aristotle) physics
Why to things move the way they do? What is mass?
The Ancient Greeks believed that the natural state of mass was at rest. The key component to Newton’s Law that was the great paradigm shift with the Ancient Greek philosophy was the concept of inertia, that things are lazy and want to keep on doing what they were already doing.
A Canadian company produced three short videos for the elementary school classroom that show these three laws in a delightfully humorous though scientifically accurate way.
Throughout this course you will investigate the differences from the Ancient Greek philosophy where everything was made from air, earth, fire and water. They believed that the natural state of the four elements was at at their natural levels. Things only moved to get to their natural level, or if they were forced. What falls naturally out of this paradigm was that heavy things fell faster than lighter things as they had more “earth” in them.
Cat rule the internet. One of my favourite YouTube videos that illustrates inertia is by Mark Darbyshire called “Drifting Cats of Fire” as the footage is shown in regular speed, slow motion and super slow motion, set to the song “Chariots of Fire”. Do look at the grey cat in the middle who keeps moving to the right while sitting calmly. Inertia.
