A while ago someone proposed the following thought experiment to me:
A horse attached to a cart is resting on a horizontal road. If the horse attempts to move by pulling the cart, according to the 3rd Newton's Law, the cart will exert a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, cancelling each other out and thus the horse and the cart should not move. And yet it moves (pun intended ;) Why?
I never got a satisfactory answer, my guess is that the answer lies in the frames of reference involved: horse-cart and horse-road. Any ideas?
Answer
The opposing force always work on a different body, thats why they dont cancel. For instance the moon pulls the earth and the earth pulls the moon with same force. Also, the horse dont move by pulling the cart, but by pulling the earth.
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