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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Newton’s laws of motion.

Newton’s laws of motion, Relations between the forces acting on a body and the
motion of the body, formulated by Isaac Newton.

The laws describe only the motion of a body as a whole and are valid only for motions
relative to a reference frame. Usually, the reference frame is the Earth.

The first law, also called the law of inertia, states that if a body is at rest or moving at
constant speed in a straight line, it will continue to do so unless it is acted upon by a
force.

The second law states that the force F acting on a body is equal to the mass m of the
body times its acceleration a, or F = ma.

The third law, also called the action-reaction law, states that the actions of two bodies
on each other are always equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.

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Key People

Isaac Newton
English physicist and mathematician

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