Why do two people pushing on a wall from opposite sides, result in the wall not moving?
When two people push on a wall from opposite sides, the wall does not move due to Newton's third law of motion, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, when each person exerts a force on the wall by pushing, the wall exerts an equal and opposite force back on each person. These forces cancel each other out, resulting in no net force acting on the wall. Since the wall experiences no net force, it does not move.
When two people push on a wall from opposite sides and the wall does not move, it is because of Newton's third law of motion, commonly known as the law of action and reaction. This law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
In this scenario, each person is exerting a force on the wall. The force applied by the first person pushes the wall in one direction, while the force applied by the second person pushes the wall in the opposite direction. According to Newton's third law, these two forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
Since the forces are equal and opposite, they cancel each other out, resulting in a net force of zero. A net force of zero means that there is no unbalanced force acting on the wall, and according to Newton's second law of motion, an object at rest (or in this case, the wall) will remain at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
So, when two people push on a wall from opposite sides and the wall does not move, it's because the equal and opposite forces they exert cancel each other out, creating a balanced force system that keeps the wall stationary.