Newton's Third Law

Singapore
January 6, 2007 4:38am CST
I'm kinda confused here. Newton's third law states that every action has a equal and opposite reaction. Wouldn't the opposite reaction meet another opposite reaction,which has a opposite reaction and so on and so forth. Wouldn't this lead to everything being in equalibarium,causing everything to be unable to move?
1 response
@AJMSmith (112)
12 Feb 07
The law does not say that the action and reaction act on the same object. The conservation of momentum (in a non relatavistic universe) is an example of this. Momentum is conserved but can be transferred from one object to another (by an action/reaction type event). Which part is action and which reaction is purely a matter of convention ... the labels can be applied either way round.