Re: The experiment

On Wed, 04 Jun 2025 23:27:28 PDT, Luigi Fortunati
<fortunati.luigi@gmail.com> wrote:

[[Mod. note --
There are lots of experiments which support Newton's *2nd* law.
Given Newton's 2nd law, there's a gedanken-experiment which lets us
derive (or at least strongly argue for) Newton's *3rd* law.  Briefly,
the gedanken-experiment has 3 bodies touching each other
  A B C
with an external force pushing right on A (which then pushes right
on B, which then pushes right on C).  We apply Newton's 2nd law to B,
and then consider the limiting case where B becomes very thin in the
horizonal direction (e.g., maybe B is a sheet of aluminum foil oriented
vertically) and B has very small mass.
>
This weekend I'll try to post a more detailed analysis of this
gedanken-experiment and what we can infer from it about Newton's 3rd
law.
-- jt]]

I have been waiting with great interest for your more detailed
analysis, which has not arrived.

And it could not have arrived because it is precisely Newton's first
two laws that demonstrate that the third law is wrong.

What do the first two laws say? They say that the stationary rope
(whether of small or large mass) remains stationary until there is a
net force that accelerates it.

So, if the rope accelerates, it means that it pulls (and is pulled) by
the horse *more* than it pulls (and is pulled) by the stone.

This is exactly the opposite of what Newton explicitly states, who
nowhere speaks of non-existent abstract and massless ropes!

If the forces on the rope were truly always equal and opposite,
precisely because of the first two laws, the rope should remain
stationary in its place without ever accelerating!

And instead, the rope accelerates, demonstrating that opposite forces
exist but are not equal.

Why are you all so afraid to admit that the third law is wrong?

Luigi Fortunati