Question

A kangaroo kicks downward with a 1000N force. According to Newton's Law the kangaroo is propelled into the air by:

Answer 1

Answer: B) his muscles

Explanation:

Specifically his leg muscles. As the leg muscles expand, they push down on the ground. Newton's 3rd law says that for any action, there's an opposite and equal reaction. That means a downward push into the ground will have the ground push back, more or less, and that's why the kangaroo will jump. The ground (and the earth entirely) being much more massive compared to the animal means that the ground doesn't move while the kangaroo does move. Perhaps on a very microscopic tiny level the ground/earth does move but it's so small that we practically consider it 0.

This experiment can be done with a wall as well. Go up to a wall and lean against it with your hands. Then do a pushup to move further away from the wall, but you don't necessarily need to lose contact with the wall's surface. As you push against the wall, the wall pushes back, and that causes you to move backward. If the wall was something flimsy like cardboard, then you could easily push the wall over and you wouldn't move back very much. It all depends how much mass is in the object you're pushing on.