Isaac Newton is most famous for writing the three laws that determine how objects move. Perhaps you've heard the story of Newton coming up with these laws while sitting under an apple tree and an apple fell on his head. While this story might not be completely true, an apple falling from a tree illustrates Newton's three laws. Let's review these laws.

Question

Law 1: An object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by a net force.

Law 2: A net force will cause an object to accelerate at a rate that depends on the object's mass.

Law 3: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

REPHRASE ALL OF THIS, MAKE IT SOUND CASUAL, AND SIMPLIFY IT TO EXPLAIN TO 10YOS

Answer 1

Isaac Newton is super famous for figuring out three important rules about how things move. You might have heard a story about him sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head, which helped him come up with these ideas. While that story may not be totally true, the falling apple does help explain his three rules!

Rule 1: If something is moving, it just wants to keep moving, and if it’s sitting still, it wants to stay still—unless something pushes or pulls it.

Rule 2: If you push or pull something really hard, it will speed up. But how fast it speeds up depends on how heavy it is.

Rule 3: Whenever you do something (like pushing), there’s always a reaction that goes the other way. So if you push on something, that thing pushes back just as hard!

Pretty cool, right?