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Writer's pictureIan Searle

Physicists agree statement to 'water down' Newton's Laws of Motion



Members of the Institute of Physics have agreed on a declaration, following a boozy and rather fractious lunch at The Ivy, that has been both hailed as historic and dismissed as weak. Here are the big takeaways:


In the first law, an object may be able to change its motion even if no force acts on it, providing the prevailing economic conditions support such a move.


In the second law, the force on an object will no longer be equal to its mass times its acceleration, but will be phased in over a period, to be agreed some time in future.


In the third law, when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and opposite direction but only if the larger object ,and all its allies, agree.


Politicians say the document did not go far enough for world leaders, who don't believe a word scientists say anyway.


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