Before Newton could create his theory of gravity he first came up with his three scientific “laws” of motion. This resulted from his studying Galileo’s experiment that was just like the one my grandson did with hotwheels. In his honor these are now referred to as Newton’s Laws. Click on the picture to see a video examples of Newton’s Laws. A few other videos demonstrating Newton’s laws are here:video1 and here:video2 and here:video3 and here:video4.

Check with your mom or dad before trying the egg trick. In fact it may be prudent to try the coin trick instead of the egg trick. Place a glass half filled with water on a table. Put a playing card on top of the glass and on top of the card place a coin like a quarter. Now with a quick snap of a finger flick the edge of the card so that it shoots out fast. The coin will be left behind because of inertia (Newton’s first law) and then just like the egg trick the coin will fall into the glass because of gravity.

A scientific law is nothing more than an assumption about how the universe works. Sometimes these assumptions are called axioms or postulates depending on whether it is a physicist, a mathematician, or some other type of philosopher who is talking but no matter how you say it they are all just assumptions or guesses. These assumptions become scientific “laws” when an overwhelming amount of observational data can be explained using them and they can be used to predict new phenomena.

After Newton assumed his three laws then he used his imagination and his math skills to figure out how strongly gravity always pulls things together. This is the basis for Newton’ theory of gravity. In the process he also invented an important branch of mathematics called integral calculus. His theory is very successful and is used to this day to predict the motion of planets, satellites, bullets and even cars although the theory is over 300 years old!

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