Newton and Interaction
Isaac Newton
1643 -1727
In this episode, Jack and Mark talk about the concept of a physical interaction. They discuss Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion as fundamental for students of physics to understand. The Third Law explains how physical interactions work. Namely, that forces always occur in pairs with equal magnitude and in opposite directions on the two objects of an interaction. The audience is invited, along with Mark, to test their understanding of this concept through a series of scenario-based questions posed by Jack. It's through these types of examples that most students come to be proficient at identifying forces found in interactions. The podcast concludes with discussion of the impact Newton's ideas had the science of his day and how they continue to be important in today's world both practically and philosophically.
Podcast length: 1:06:45
Show Notes:
Selected Awards and Publications associated with Isaac Newton:
Selected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1672.
Title page of the Principia
Published in 1687.
Discussed in the episode:
These are the four fundamental interactions. In each case, when an interaction occurs, two forces are exerted. These forces act on the two objects or systems involved in the interaction in opposite directions butwith equal magnitude. The forces are simultaneous.
Newton's Third Law as found in Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). On the left, the page in Principia containing the Third Law is shown in the original Latin. On the right is the English translation.
Newton's Grave in Westminster Abbey
Newton's Grave in Westminster Abbey (upclose)
Stephen Hawkin's Grave in Westminster Abbey
Other items of interest related to this podcast:
Jack standing next to Isaac Newton's statue at Trinity College, Cambridge University.
Sculpted by the French artist, Louis-Francois Roubiliac. The Latin inscription at the foot of the statue says,
Newton
In intellect he surpassed the human race.
"The Sir Isaac Newton is the noblest, I think, of all our English statues. There is an air of nature, and a loftiness of thought about it, which no other artist has in this country, I suspect, reached. You cannot imagine any thing grander in sentiment, and the execution is every way worthy of it." Attributed to the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey, in Allan Cunningham's Lives of British Painters, Sculptors and Architects, iii.52.