Feb 12, 2007
Newton’s Laws Explained With Lego
Everyone who studies any science at school will have come across Newton’s Laws of Motion. His three physical laws explain the relationships between the forces acting on a body and the motion of that body and were first published in 1687 in his magnum opus – Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
Newton’s laws underpin so-called classical mechanics, as opposed to quantum mechanics or relativity theory. I’ve summarised them below, but you’ll get a much clearer understanding of bodies in motion if you watch the video.
- Objects stay still or move with constant velocity unless a force pulls on them or gives them a shove
- Pulling or shoving an object changes its velocity (accelerates it) at a rate proportional to the force of the pull or shove
- If you shove or pull an object it will pull or shove back with an equal and opposite force
And remember, gravity isn’t just a good idea, it’s the law!
"Deceived Wisdom: Why What You Thought Was Right Is Wrong" from David Bradley. Available now on 
Great video, but there’s an error in the acceleration calculation.
Change the mass of the ball to 0.2 Kg before dividing. The acceleration is really 2000 m/s^2.
that was a very precise video
very nice apple
im going to write a book about this
The apples are great…
As to gravitational theory, it is indeed just a theory, and Newton’s version of the theory is very much old school as you well know, Robert!
Terrific! I like the ‘apple’.
Gravity? It’s just a theory!