Re: Does Newton's third law hold in Special Relativity?

On Apr 5, 6:20 pm, "ram.rac...@xxxxxxxxx" <ram.rac...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hello,

Does Newton's third law, that says that every force has an equal and
opposite counter force, still applies in Special Relativity?
From Principia, by Isaac Newton (translated by Andrew Motte) page
19:
"Law III: 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."

The "action" and "reaction" part of this law isn't very clear. It
really is just a short summary of the second half. However, look
carefully on the second half of this law.
"The mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and
directed to contrary parts."

By "actions," I take it to mean "forces" and by "bodies," I take
to mean "matter objects." And the sentence is in present tense.
Therefore, the electromagnetic field described by Maxwell doesn't
satisfy the third law. The actions have to be at the same time equal.
If there is a delay, the third law doesn't apply.
The forces between two electrically charged bodies are not always
equal and opposite according to Maxwell's equations. If two like
charges a large distance apart have been in position a long time, the
electric force between them may be equal. However, if one charge is
suddenly moved toward the other charge, it will be subject to a larger
force from the second body. However, the second body won't experience
the change in force for a long time. The electric force can't can't
propagate faster than the speed of light according to Maxwell's
equation. Furthermore, you can't count the "force" on the
electromagnetic field because the electromagnetic field isn't a
material "body." Therefore, the third law of Newton and Maxwell's
equations are technically in contradiction.

Maxwell's equations and Newton's Laws are in logical
contradiction. Newton's Laws were stated in the present tense as
though forces are instantaneous, but in actuality forces propagate at
a finite speed. I think this contradiction preceded special
relativity. I suspect that this contradiction lead to relativity.
Special relativity started as a means of modifying Newton's Laws so
that there is no logical contradiction.

H.A. Lorentz started working out the consequences of a finite
speed of propagation. A. Einstein finished H. A. Lorentz's program.
.

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