Misconceptions spread by K-6 Grade School Textbooks

CORRECTED: For every action, there is not an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton originally published his laws of motion in Latin, and in the English translation, the word "action" was used in a different way than it's usually used today. It was not used to suggest motion. Instead it was used to mean "an acting upon." It was used in much the same way that the word "force" is used today. What Newton's third law of motion means is this:

For every "acting upon", there must be an equal "acting upon" in the opposite direction.

Or in modern terms...

For every FORCE applied, there must be an equal FORCE in the opposite direction.

So while it's true that a skateboard does fly backwards when the rider steps off it, these motions of "action" and "reaction" are not what Newton was investigating. Newton was actually referring to the fact that when you push on something, it pushes back upon you equally, even if it does not move. When a bowling ball pushes down on the Earth, the Earth pushes up on the bowling ball by the same amount. That is a good illustration of Newton's third Law. Newton's Third Law can be rewritten to say:

For every force there is an equal and opposite force.

Or "you cannot touch without being touched."

Or even simpler: Forces always exist in pairs.

http://www.amasci.com/miscon/miscon4.html#newt

http://www.usatoday.com/educate/college/careers/rtn/odonnell.htm
"It's not always going to be upbeat and it's okay to be frightened. You are going to be scared, I certainly was. You can't see the light at the end of the tunnel and you want to know what the outcome is going to be. You want that security blanket. I say, go without it, every now and then, it will work out. The real security blanket is your values and your visions and that is what you come back to all the time."

As I sit here, I drink my chocolate soy beverage mixed with rice protein. And I enjoy the taste. And that's my story.

This reminds me of one time in highschool English class. As a journalling exercise, my teacher wanted the class to, "continue writing the story from where the author ended it." So, I wrote a few more paragraphs, stopped writing, and handed it in.

The teacher commented, "Sonya, it appears there is no conclusion -- perhaps you had some time constraints?"

I wrote back, "Nope."

What is a poet? He is a man of religious experience whose creative gift enables him to communicate spiritual truths to men. His poetry can bring deliverance from spiritual death, bringing his hearers to a new knowledge of their divine Creator, who gave him this special power. In this way souls that have been disordered can be healed, and the human relation with God may be restored when it has been impaired...This is the fruit and indeed the purpose of music and poetry, direct gifts from God to mankind.

-- Elizabeth Henry, Orpheus and His Lute