As a ball falls, the force is the pull of Earth's mass (gravitational force) on the ball. What is the reaction force?

Question

anonymous · Answer

the reaction force(gravitational force) will be on earth by ball...

kainui · Answer

Since a force is just mass and acceleration we can look at what's happening. The ball is falling towards the earth and at the same time the earth is falling towards the ball. The reason we don't feel the earth move every time we drop a ball is that it is so massive.

Since their forces are equal, and we know that their masses are very different imagine the ball needing a much higher acceleration to match the force of the earth which in turn has a much lower acceleration. So little is the acceleration that it is usually just ignored for the sake of calculations, but realize that this is a simplification.

anonymous · Answer

What has been explained here is really Newtons 3. law, which states that for every action (force) there is a reaction (force). Anytime an object A works with a force on another object B, that other object B will work on the object A with the same force in the opposite direction. 

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