• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    This is Aristotelian physics, wherein you apply effort to an object and then it moves until that effort is used up.

    Newtonian physics posits the existence of counter-balancing forces, wherein everything is already in motion and what you experience as movement is just a change in acceleration and direction. The classic “apple falling on my head” story is about Newton questioning why a thing which was not moving would suddenly start moving simply because it was disconnected from its host.

    That gets you to his 2nd Law of Motion, wherein a body exerts an equal and opposite force on its surroundings. And a thing that isn’t moving is simply experiencing a countervailing force relative to where it would be moving unimpeded.