Aristotle provided a philosophical discussion of the concept of a force as an integral part of

Aristotelian cosmology. In Aristotle's view, the terrestrial sphere contained four elements that come
to rest at different "natural places" therein. Aristotle believed that motionless objects on Earth, those
composed mostly of the elements earth and water, were in their natural place when on the ground,
and that they stay that way if left alone. He distinguished between the innate tendency of objects to
find their "natural place" (e.g., for heavy bodies to fall), which led to "natural motion", and unnatural
or forced motion, which required continued application of a force.[7] This theory, based on the
everyday experience of how objects move, such as the constant application of a force needed to
keep a cart moving, had conceptual trouble accounting for the behavior of projectiles, such as the
flight of arrows. An archer causes the arrow to move at the start of the flight, and it then sails
through the air even though no discernible efficient cause acts upon it. Aristotle was aware of this
problem and proposed that the air displaced through the projectile's path carries the projectile to its
target. This explanation requires a continuous medium such as air to sustain the motion.[8]

Though Aristotelian physics was criticized as early as the 6th century,[9][10] its shortcomings would
not be corrected until the 17th century work of Galileo Galilei, who was influenced by the late
medieval idea that objects in forced motion carried an innate force of impetus. Galileo constructed
an experiment in which stones and cannonballs were both rolled down an incline to disprove the
Aristotelian theory of motion. He showed that the bodies were accelerated by gravity to an extent
that was independent of their mass and argued that objects retain their velocity unless acted on by
a force, for example friction.[11] Galileo's idea that force is needed to change motion rather than to
sustain it, further improved upon by Isaac Beeckman, René Descartes, and Pierre Gassendi, became
a key principle of Newtonian physics.[12]

In the early 17th century, before Newton's Principia, the term "force" (Latin: vis) was applied to many
physical and non-physical phenomena, e.g., for an acceleration of a point. The product of a point
mass and the square of its velocity was named vis viva (live force) by Leibniz. The modern concept
of force corresponds to Newton's vis motrix (accelerating force).[13]

Newtonian mechanics

Sir Isaac Newton described the motion of all objects using the concepts of inertia and force. In
1687, Newton published his magnum opus, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.[3][14] In this
work Newton set out three laws of motion that have dominated the way forces are described in
physics to this day.[14] The precise ways in which Newton's laws are expressed have evolved in step
with new mathematical approaches.[15]
First law

Newton's first law of motion states that the natural behavior of an object at rest is to continue being
at rest, and the natural behavior of an object moving at constant speed in a straight line is to
continue moving at that constant speed along that straight line.[14] The latter follows from the
former because of the principle that the laws of physics are the same for all inertial observers, i.e.,
all observers who do not feel themselves to be in motion. An observer moving in tandem with an
object will see it as being at rest. So, its natural behavior will be to remain at rest with respect to that
observer, which means that an observer who sees it moving at constant speed in a straight line will
see it continuing to do so.[16]: 1–7

Sir Isaac Newton in 1689. His

Second law

According to the first law, motion at constant speed in a straight line does not need a cause. It is
change in motion that requires a cause, and Newton's second law gives the quantitative relationship
between force and change of motion. Newton's second law states that the net force acting upon an
object is equal to the rate at which its momentum changes with time. If the mass of the object is
constant, this law implies that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force
acting on the object, is in the direction of the net force, and is inversely proportional to the mass of
the object.[17]: 204–207
A modern statement of Newton's second law is a vector equation:

where is the momentum of the system, and is the net (vector sum) force.[17]: 399 If a body is in
equilibrium, there is zero net force by definition (balanced forces may be present nevertheless). In
contrast, the second law states that if there is an unbalanced force acting on an object it will result
in the object's momentum changing over time.[14]

In common engineering applications the mass in a system remains constant allowing as simple
algebraic form for the second law. By the definition of momentum,

where m is the mass and is the velocity.[4]: 9-1,9-2 If Newton's second law is applied to a system of
constant mass, m may be moved outside the derivative operator. The equation then becomes

By substituting the definition of acceleration, the algebraic version of Newton's second law is
derived:

Third law

Whenever one body exerts a force on another, the latter simultaneously exerts an equal and
opposite force on the first. In vector form, if is the force of body 1 on body 2 and that of
body 2 on body 1, then

This law is sometimes referred to as the action-reaction law, with called the action and
the reaction.

Newton's third law is a result of applying symmetry to situations where forces can be attributed to
the presence of different objects. The third law means that all forces are interactions between
different bodies.[18][19] and thus that there is no such thing as a unidirectional force or a force that
acts on only one body.

In a system composed of object 1 and object 2, the net force on the system due to their mutual
interactions is zero:

More generally, in a closed system of particles, all internal forces are balanced. The particles may
accelerate with respect to each other but the center of mass of the system will not accelerate. If an