Question

A student fly has just learned Newton’s Third Law of Motion. He decided to do a daredevil experiment by colliding head-on with a speeding car. The fly reasons out, “By Newton’s Third Law, the force I apply on the windshield of the car is only equal but opposite to the force of the windshield applied to me; therefore, I will not be harmed”. Of course, the fly was crushed to death! Use Newton’s Third Law to explain what was wrong with the fly’s reasoning.

Answer 1

According to Newton's third law of motion

Action = -Reaction

Thus , the fly was correct that it would experience an equal force from the speeding car but it would be fatal to the fly because the forces would not be cancelled as reasoned by the fly.

It is so because these two forces are not acting on the same body and thus they would not be cancelled. (As the force exerted by fly is on the car , whereas the force exerted by car is on the fly).

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