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START YOUR JOURNEY - LAWS OF MOTION

 

Newton’s Laws of Motion Challenge

You Chose :

3. The Law of Action-Reaction:

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

This is not the correct choice for this question.

However, Newton’s Third Law of Action-Reaction is the essence of jet and rocket propulsion. Let’s look at a diagram of the combustion chamber of a rocket (essentially your bottle).

If it were closed, the pressurized air would push out on all sides equally, like a balloon.

However, open the nozzle and the escaping air leaves an unbalanced force on the opposite side of the bottle.

The “action” is the movement of air out of the nozzle. The “reaction” is the forward motion of the bottle.

Part of what determines the bottle’s velocity is the MOMENTUM (momentum = mass x velocity) of the escaping particles. There is another law, called the Conservation of Momentum Law that requires the momentum of the bottle (bottle mass x bottle velocity) to be equal but opposite to the momentum of the escaping air (air mass x air velocity).


Before we continue, let's test what you know!


>>Try Again - Back to the Acceleration page

Any comments, concerns, or questions should be addressed to:    

Developer: David Mazza    
Responsible NASA Official: Jo Ann Charleston    

 
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Editor: Tom Benson
NASA Official: Tom Benson
Last Updated: May 13 2021

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