Photo Project

This photo demonstrates both Newton’s Second Law and Newton’s Third Law. Newton’s Second Law states that force equals the mass of an object times its acceleration. The mass of the object may vary, but the acceleration at a certain point will always be constant, ~9.8 meters per second per second on Earth. It also displays Newton’s Third Law. While the earth obviously pulls on the hat, with an acceleration of ~9.8 m/s^2, the hat also pulls on the Earth. The acceleration due to gravity on the Earth from the hat is equal to the hat’s mass times the universal gravitational constant, ~6.67 times 10 to the -11^th Newton-meters squared over kilograms squared, over the radius of the circle with a diameter the length of the distance between the Earth’s center and the hat’s center. The hat will obviously have all of these variables equal to the Earth’s, with the exception of mass. The hat’s mass is much smaller, so it will cause less acceleration due to gravity on the Earth than the Earth causes on the hat. Thus, the hat will fall to the ground, while the Earth will barely budge from its orbit.