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Forces and Motion

What are Newton's Laws of Motion?

Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727) changed the way
that people understood forces and motion.

The "common sense" view (developed in ancient Greece)
said that a single force is needed to sustain motion.
This means that if you want to keep a bicycle moving on flat ground,
then you have to keep pedalling or it will slow down and stop.

Newton changed this view,
showing that ideas of balanced and unbalanced forces
were better at explaining how objects moved.
The three laws of motion are given below in plain English.

First Law.
If the forces on an object are balanced then it will carry on as it is.

Second Law.
If the forces on an object are unbalanced then
the resultant force will cause the motion of the object to change.
The bigger the force, the bigger the change in motion.

Third Law.
When two objects push or pull against each other,
the forces that they feel are equal and opposite.

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