Relations between the force s acting on a body and the motion of the body, formulated by
The laws describe only the motion of a body as a whole and are valid only for motions relative to a reference frame. Usually, the reference frame is the Earth. The first law, also called the law of {{link=inertia">inertia , states that if a body is at rest or moving at constant speed in a straight line, it will continue to do so unless it is acted upon by a force. The second law states that the force F acting on a body is equal to the mass m of the body times its acceleration a , or F = m a . The third law, also called the action-reaction law, states that the actions of two bodies on each other are always equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.