Learning Goal: To understand Newton's 3rd law, which states that a physical interaction always generates a pair of forces on the two interacting bodies. In Principia, Newton wrote: To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts. (translation by Cajori) The phrase after the colon (often omitted from textbooks) makes it clear that this is a statement about the nature of force. The central idea is that physical interactions (e. g., due to gravity, bodies touching, or electric forces) cause forces to arise between pairs of bodies. Each pairwise interaction produces a pair of opposite forces, one acting on each body. In summary, each physical interaction between two bodies generates a pair of forces. Whatever the physical cause of the interaction, the force on body A from body B is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force on body B from body A. Incidentally, Newton states that the word "action" denotes both (a) the force due to an interaction and (b) the changes in momentum that it imparts to the two interacting bodies. If you haven't learned about momentum, don't worry; for now this is just a statement about the origin of forces. Mark each of the following statements as true or false. If a statement refers to "two bodies" interacting via some force, you are not to assume that these two bodies have the same mass.