- #1
xWaldorf
- 11
- 0
So there's something I'm missing when I think of Newton's 3rd law of motion.
If all forces between two objects exist in equal magnitude and opposite direction, how is it that, for example, when I'm driving my car, the car "runs through" all the air molecules, and they seemingly don't exert the same force back on my car (although i know that they do), a force of a full iszed car running at X kph?
how is it that hitting a wall with my car has different results from "hitting" air molecules, when the reaction is supposed to be the same - same force on my care on the opposite direction.
In other words, in what way the mass of an object affects the reaction, and what am I missing here?
I realize that the forces don't cancel out because they act on different objects, that is not the misconception I am struggling with
If all forces between two objects exist in equal magnitude and opposite direction, how is it that, for example, when I'm driving my car, the car "runs through" all the air molecules, and they seemingly don't exert the same force back on my car (although i know that they do), a force of a full iszed car running at X kph?
how is it that hitting a wall with my car has different results from "hitting" air molecules, when the reaction is supposed to be the same - same force on my care on the opposite direction.
In other words, in what way the mass of an object affects the reaction, and what am I missing here?
I realize that the forces don't cancel out because they act on different objects, that is not the misconception I am struggling with