Question

A teacher asks her students to jump off of the ground. Once the students complete the task, she says, "All of you just made Earth accelerate." Using Newton's three laws, explain how the teacher is correct even though no one saw the Earth move.

Answer 1

Answer:

Explained below

Explanation:

A) Newton's first law of motion states that an object will remain at rest or continue in its current state of motion except it is acted upon by another force.

Now using this law, when you jump off the ground, the earth will move a tiny bit and accelerate due to the force applied by the jumping.

B) Newton's 2nd law states that the acceleration of a system is directly proportional to the net external force acting on that system, is in the same direction with it and also inversely proportional to the mass.

In this case, when one jumps, an external force is exerted on the earth and we are told it is directly proportional to the acceleration of the system which in this case it's the earth, then it means that there is some motion by the earth even though you didn't see it move.

C) Newton's third law of motion states that to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In this case the motion of the jumper will lead to an equal and opposite reaction of the earth.