Every action has an equal and opposite reaction
Interpretation
This quote describes the principle of action and reaction, stating that every force creates a counterforce of equal strength.
Isaac Newton's statement, 'Every action has an equal and opposite reaction,' encapsulates a fundamental principle of classical mechanics, indicating that forces always occur in pairs. When one object exerts a force on another, the second object exerts a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction back on the first, highlighting the interconnectedness of forces in the physical world.
In practice
In a physics class while discussing Newton's laws of motion.
The best and safest way of philosophising seems to be, first to enquire diligently into the properties of things, and to establish those properties by experiences [experiments] and then to proceed slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them. For hypotheses should be employed only in explaining the properties of things, but not assumed in determining them; unless so far as they may furnish experiments.
Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
His epitaph: Who, by vigor of mind almost divine, the motions and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, and the tides of the seas first demonstrated.
And from true lordship it follows that the true God is living, intelligent, and powerful; from the other perfections, that he is supreme, or supremely perfect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, he endures from eternity to eternity; and he is present from infinity to infinity; he rules all things, and he knows all things that happen or can happen.
My Design in this Book is not to explain the Properties of Light by Hypotheses, but to propose and prove them by Reason and Experiments: In order to which, I shall premise the following Definitions and Axioms.
It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded.
The noble science of Geology loses glory from the extreme imperfection of the record. The crust of the earth with its embedded remains must not be looked at as a well-filled museum, but as a poor collection made at hazard and at rare intervals.
It is an art of no little importance to administer medicines properly: but, it is an art of much greater and more difficult acquisition to know when to suspend or altogether to omit them.
Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful.
Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God.
If we could honestly promise young couples that we knew how to give them offspring with superior character, why should we assume they would decline? Common sense tells us that if scientists find ways to greatly improve human capabilities, there will no stopping the public from happily seizing them.
Imagination alone is not enough, because the reality of nature is far more wondrous than anything we can imagine
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