Newton's Law and Justin's Songs

The three laws of Sir Issac Newton although relatively simple as it seems and very much common sense, does indeed have a profound effect on our daily lives and is very much reinforced by ancient Chinese wise men’s teachings and learning, as can be exemplified in Confucius’ philosophies and the Art of Taiji. To further emphasize the point of common sense and to relate how Newton’s Laws are being experienced in our daily lives, a very good example which can be seen (and heard) is on Justin Timberlake’s latest album “FutureSex/LoveSounds” where a very popular song called “What goes around” depicts how his relationship with a girl (most possibly Britney) ended because she cheated on him, and how she is experiencing the same kind of ‘treatment’ from the person she is currently with. And so the lyrics goes: ”What goes around, goes around, goes around and come all the way back around…”. In this modern world we can almost summarise the entire song and its lyrics to a single word commonly known as “Karma”. But then again it wouldn’t have sell as well if all Justin sang were “Karma Karma you better watch out for bad Karma”.

Examples on the governance of Newton’s Laws in our daily lives are not just seen but can be felt if one is wary of its existence. Anybody working in an office can very much attest to it, knowing that ‘The Office’ is sometimes also coined as ‘The Battlefield’. Battles are fought day in and day out, and sometimes a war can only end when a dictator has retired or leave the company. But I digress.

Lets take a look at the three laws of Newton and how these laws are experienced in the office:

I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

In an example of a high-flying executive whose career seems to be moving infinitely upwards along the corporate ladder can be and will be stop if another person or event acted against or upon him. Such occurrences are frequently known as a “Screw up”. That person can either be stuck on the level which he was at, or spiral downhill should the external force be powerful enough to sink him. Then again this action will induce Newton’s Third Law which we will cover soon.


II. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.

This simply means that every person in the office has the potential to move in any direction of the corporate ladder should a force (be it internal or external) be applied. In the example of a salesperson that gets sales from a giant corporation, which would mean a major force can be applied to skyrocket his sales career. However take note that because force are vectors, they can be moving in any direction, including downwards.


III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Finally Newton’s most famous law, which was illustrated in the beginning by Justin Timberlake’s song. Needless to say we experience this almost everywhere. By throwing sarcasms at a fellow colleague will gain you less disposition amongst your other colleagues – unless they are also doing the same. Ok, I admit that may not be the best example but you get the idea.