WikiMechanics

The third law of motion from Sir Isaac Newton is about a balance between the forces of cause and effect. It has been translated as This has something in common with the ancient Indian idea of karma a key concept in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Tao, Shinto and Sikh philosophies. It is also similar to Western aphorisms like, 'what goes around comes around'. And we suppose that Newton himself was acutely aware of passages in the Jewish and Christian texts about reaping and sowing. But Newton's third law is much more than just a vague claim of cosmic balance. It has a mathematically precise expression in terms of two compound atoms called $\mathbf{A}$ and $\mathbf{B}$ that have an interaction with each other by exchanging another particle called $\sf{X}$. The interaction begins when $\mathbf{A}$ emits $\sf{X}$ which causes the effect of $\sf{X}$ being absorbed into $\mathbf{B}$ after an elapsed time of $\Delta t$. The forces on $\mathbf{A}$ and $\mathbf{B}$ due to this interaction are found by substituting their changes of momentum $\Delta \bar{p}$ discussed earlier into the definition of force to obtain

$\begin{align} \overline{F} ^{\mathbf{A}} \equiv \frac{ \Delta \bar{p} ^{\mathbf{A}} }{ \Delta t } = \frac{ - \bar{p}^{ \sf{X}} }{ \Delta t } \end{align}$and$\begin{align} \overline{F} ^{\mathbf{B}} \equiv \frac{ \Delta \bar{p} ^{\mathbf{B}} }{ \Delta t } = \frac{ \, \bar{p}^{ \sf{X}} }{ \Delta t } \end{align}$

so that

$\overline{F} ^{ \mathbf{A}} = - \, \overline{F} ^{ \mathbf{B}}$

The force of the cause is of equal size and in the opposite direction to the force of the effect. These quantities are measureable, so Newton's assertion can be scientifically tested in our laboratories. And for WikiMechanics, all the foregoing terms are well defined in terms of sensation.