Question

Sarah accidentally drops her phone, and it falls under the refrigerator. She can't reach it, so she asks her sister to help her move the refrigerator. Using Newton's three laws of motion, how could Sarah's sister explain to her why this will be difficult?

Answer 1

For the first law, the fridge is at rest, so it's going to tend to stay at rest because of its inertia.

For the second law, the fridge has has a lot of mass, which will mean they need to apply a lot of force to accelerate it, to get it moving.

For the third, when they push against the fridge and it in turn pushes horizontally against the floor, the floor pushes back (friction), and they must push hard enough to overcome that.

Answer 2

Thank you so much!

Answer 3

You're welcome.