In physics, the laws of motion are governing principles that describe the movement of objects. The three most well-known and fundamental laws are Newton’s laws of motion, which were first formulated by English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton in his 1687 work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
Newton’s laws of motion are three physical laws that form the basis for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between a body or system of bodies and the forces acting on them, and how those bodies change over time in response to those forces. The three laws are as follows:
First Law: Every object continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by an external force. This law is also known as the law of inertia.
Second Law: The acceleration produced by a force acting on a body is directly proportional to the magnitude of the force and inversely proportional to the mass of the body; i.e., F = ma, where F is force, m is mass, and a is acceleration.
Third Law: For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.