Newton's law
2
3.8
- noun
- /ˈnjuːtənz lɔː/
- Specialized
:
ley de Newton
- In everyday life, Newton's law explains why we feel pushed back in our seats when a car accelerates.
- Newton's law of motion
- Newton's law of gravity
Examples
-
A satellite moves at a speed that can be computed from Newton's laws of motion and gravitation.
Academic text (1996) -
As is true for many physical laws, Newton's laws of motion are plain and simple.
Academic text (2004) -
An engineer once tried on a date to explain Newton's laws.
Fiction book (2002) -
And the only way that could happen, by Newton's laws, is if you left the brakes on.
Blog text (1) -
Kinesiologists study Newton's laws with respect to human movement.
Academic text (2009) -
But armed with Newton's laws of motion, they could describe the relations among force, mass, and acceleration under all conditions.
Academic text (2004) -
The discovery of Neptune was a dramatic confirmation of the power of Newton's law of gravity.
Academic text (2000) -
By the time Herschel discovered Uranus, however, Newton's laws had had a hundred-year run of successful predictions.
Academic text (2003) -
Newton's laws are derived as consequences of momentum conservation, and applications include gravity-boost orbits and space exploration.
Academic text (1996) -
Students learn about Newton's law of motion in their physics class.
Synonyms
3
3.9
A rule that shows how pushes and pulls change how things move, for example by starting or stopping
1
3.5
Three basic rules that explain how objects move and push each other in physics
Surface Forms
Morphology
Newton's + law
The phrase is compositional: the possessive 'Newton's' indicates authorship/by Newton and 'law' denotes a general scientific rule, so the meaning 'a scientific rule formulated by Newton' is directly derivable from the parts. This possessive + noun naming pattern for scientific laws is common cross-linguistically, making it immediately understandable to a learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Newton's law comes from the scientist Isaac Newton; one popular story says he saw an apple fall and wondered why things move. He wrote simple 'rules' about how pushes and pulls make objects start, stop, or change direction, so Newton's law now means the basic 'rules' that explain how objects move.