Question
NEWTON'S LAWS Each scenario demonstrates one of Newton's Laws. Choose which law you believe is being shown, and explain your reasoning. 1. Dan drives a pickup truck and has it loaded full of boxes. He forgets to close the tailgate before driving away and all the boxes fall out the back. Law: 1 2 3 __ fairness 2. Lisa's family is moving to a new town and she has packed up all her old belongings in equal sized boxes. One box she fills completely with her favorite stuffed animals Another box she fills completely with her book collection. When it comes time to load the boxes, Lisa regrets filling as it is now almost impossible to lift. Law: 1 2 3 __ businessman 3. Not knowing what he's doing, Mike kicks a bowling ball thinking it was a soccer ball. Not only does the ball not move like he expected it to, but his foot is pretty badly injured. Law: 1 1 2 3 __
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Tyler
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Answer
1. Dan drives a pickup truck and has it loaded full of boxes. He forgets to close the tailgate before driving away and all the boxes fall out the back.Law: 1 (Newton's First Law of Motion)Explain your reasoning:Newton's First Law, also known as the law of inertia, states that an object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. In this scenario, when Dan drives away, the boxes tend to remain in their state of rest relative to the ground due to inertia. Since there is no tailgate to provide a force to move the boxes forward with the truck, they fall out of the back as the truck accelerates forward.2. Lisa's family is moving to a new town, and she has packed up all her old belongings in equal sized boxes. One box she fills completely with her favorite stuffed animals. Another box she fills completely with her book collection. When it comes time to load the boxes, Lisa regrets filling the box with books as it is now almost impossible to lift.Law: 2 (Newton's Second Law of Motion)Explain your reasoning:Newton's Second Law of Motion states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting upon it and inversely proportional to its mass. In this case, the box filled with books has a much greater mass than the box filled with stuffed animals. Assuming Lisa applies the same force to lift both boxes, the box with books will have a much smaller acceleration (in this case, the acceleration is the lifting motion) due to its larger mass, making it much harder to lift. This demonstrates Newton's Second Law, where force, mass, and acceleration are related.3. Not knowing what he's doing, Mike kicks a bowling ball thinking it was a soccer ball. Not only does the ball not move like he expected it to, but his foot is pretty badly injured.Law: 3 (Newton's Third Law of Motion)Explain your reasoning:Newton's Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When Mike kicks the bowling ball, he applies a force to the ball. The bowling ball, being much more massive than a soccer ball, does not accelerate much due to the force of the kick (as per Newton's Second Law). However, the bowling ball applies an equal and opposite force back onto Mike's foot, which is what causes the injury. This demonstrates Newton's Third Law, where the force exerted by Mike on the ball is met with an equal and opposite force from the ball onto Mike's foot.