Mules are smart but stubborn. Once upon a time a particularly smart and particularly stubborn mule refused to pull its owner’s cart and gave the following argument: “I refuse to pull the cart because it is impossible to do so according to Newton’s laws of motion. According to the 2nd Law it is necessary to have a net force in order for the cart to accelerate. According to the 3rd Law no matter how hard I pull the cart forward, the cart will pull an equal amount backward and therefore the net force will be zero
Mules are smart but stubborn. Once upon a time a particularly smart and particularly stubborn mule
refused to pull its owner’s cart and gave the following argument: “I refuse to pull the cart because it is
impossible to do so according to Newton’s laws of motion. According to the 2nd Law it is necessary to
have a net force in order for the cart to accelerate. According to the 3rd Law no matter how hard I pull
the cart forward, the cart will pull an equal amount backward and therefore the net force will be zero
and the cart will not move. Even if I could pull a million Newtons forward, the cart would pull a million
Newtons backward and so I refuse to even try!” What is the flaw in the mule’s argument?
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