Newton’s laws of motion……….. Extrapolating it to human actions.

Newtons first law of motion or the law of inertia states that a body at rest persists in its state of rest, and a body in motion remains in constant motion along a straight line unless acted upon by an external force.

A tired child in deep slumber with sweet dreams will continue to sleep unless woken up by physically shaking him up to break his sweet sleep, else the kid will continue to enjoy his sleep. Imagine a small kid running towards his mother for her to pick him up, nothing will stop him from reaching her, but if you try to obstruct his path by force he will take a detour but find the path to be in his mother’s arms. How well Newton’s first law of motion gels with our daily life activities. It’s not just physics but human actions in real life also always follow Newton’s first law.

The second law of motion states that the rate of change of momentum of a body over time is directly proportional to the force applied, and occurs in the same direction as the applied force.

The teacher insisted the student repeat the poem again and again till he could say it at a single stretch flawlessly. Initially the student repeated after the teacher slowly and carefully. After several repetitions the speed of the student improved , now he would not repeat after the teacher, he now recite along with the teacher . The force exerted by the teacher had the desired effect. The student had mastered the poem. The directions of the teacher was being followed, the change in the momentum at which the student could recite the poem was exactly proportional to the force exerted by the teacher . Newton’s second law was being followed.

Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I was was all of nine years old. The boy I was playing with was irritating me, I couldn’t bear it any longer, Zap… I slapped him, the sound was resonating , a wry smile developed across my face. Good , he needed it …..and then suddenly for no reason I could feel the slap in my face, it was painful and burning, the sound was again resonating in my ears. No one had slapped me , yet I felt being slapped with an equally hard force as I had used. Was it the reaction to my action?? My little mind understood one thing, what you give you get back. I hadn’t yet studied Newton’s laws, his third law of motion which stated that every action has an equal and opposite reaction had just come into play. The Newton in me had already understood the theory. Newton studied the laws of physics, my tender age taught me the laws of psychology, it wasn’t any different from the laws of physics, whatever you give you get back equally if not more. Just like the biblical proverb, you reap as you sow.

The children were standing in front of the local grocery shop, they were purchasing sweets, candies or lollipops. A child, dusky and in worn out clothes stood at the rear, his eyes on the children and mind longing for the sweets. He had no money, so he just stood there. An old man maybe in his eighties nearly toothless and in unkept clothes stood behind the children, calling out yo the shopkeeper to give him a bundle of bidis. He pushed a 50 paise coin towards the shopkeeper who passed on to him the bundle of bidis and a 20 paise coin. The old man took out a bidi from the bundle and lit it, as he inhaled and let out a circle ring of smoke his eyes fell on the boy who hadn’t any money to buy sweets . He felt sad for the boy and called him to his side and put the 20paise coin he had into the boys pocket gesturing to him to buy some sweets for himself too. The boy was initially reluctant to take the money but the craving for the sweets got the better of him and he pushed the coin onto the the shopkeepers counter and bought 4 orange candies. He eyes lit up on seeing the candies in his hand, two in each, suddenly he was happy and he happines showed on his face and wide smile. He looked at the old man and smiled, slowly walked across to him and handed over two candies. The old man shook his head, no he said, he didn’t want them, the boy kept insisting. The old man looked at the boys face, how happy it was !! He could feel the boys happiness. The old man has finished his bidi, the boy kept insisting the old man have the candy too , so he took them and popped them into his mouth. He hadn’t eaten candies in decades,the tangy taste of the candy send his mind hurtling seven decades into the past, he was a little boy again, he was a child again, the happines that encompassed him was unexplainable. Again the third law of Newton had been followed ….. .the action of the old man in bringing happines to the little boy was having its reaction…..the old man was as happy too.

Why Newton or men after him were unable or didn’t relate his laws of motion to human behaviour one shall never know. Each of Newton’s laws of motion can easily be extrapolated to human behaviour and actions in our day to day lives. There are innumerable examples that can be quoted to justify this. Hope this blogs brings out the Newton in each one of us.