A MISCONCEPTION ABOUT THIRD LAW OF MOTION

Sir Isaac Newton prepared his findings in Latin. When his 'Third law of motion translated to English, it became "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". But Newton suggested this law not to suggest motion. Instead , this was meant to suggest ' acting upon'.

What Newton meant was that 'to every acting upon there is an equal and opposite acting upon'.

More precisely we can say that 'To every force there's an equal and opposite force'.

It is a fact that when a person jump from a boat to the shore of a river, the boat moves back. But this 'action and reaction' were not Newton's cup of tea during the explanation of the third law. Newton was referring the fact  that when we push something, it pushes back upon us equally even if it doesn't move. Newton's third law can be rewritten as follows:

"To every force there is an equal and opposite force"

"You can't touch without being touched"

"Forces always exist in pairs"