Thread: Newton's second and third law

I have some questions.

1. What would happen if newton's second law were violated?

2. What would happen if newton's third law were violated?

3. What would happen if the forces in newton's third law were not equal in magnitude?

4. What would happen if the forces in newton's third law were in the same direction?

I know that if newton's third law were violated, the law of conservation of momentum would be defied. I do not need to know that again so please tell me what happens without using the law of conservation of momentum.

If the second law was violated it would mean we would never know what force to apply to move anything, a concrete block might weigh different every time we lifted it. It would imply that there were other forces we knew nothing about. We couldn't do the millions of calculations about what size engine or force we need. Everything would be trial and error with this other hidden force lurking in the background to trip us up. If it was violated in certain unique situations then it would still imply some other force if one not likely to upset us just yet.

Frankly a "so called" violaton of the second law would not be called a violation, instead we would assume that there is some mysterious force causing the phenomenon and we would give it some catchy name like the "mysterious" force.

A violation of the third law is practically beyond imagination. It would imply at least a local violation of the conservation of momentum. It would be like the KK drives in Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth science fiction books. The technological applications would profound (especially in space travel) and quite like magic. All known physics would be in the garbage can.