question: If theres an equal and opposite reaction for everything, how does anything happen? Isn't it balanced out by the opposite reaction?
comment: I don't think you are fully comprehending what "equal" means in this kind of situation. When I throw a baseball, the baseball resists the force I'm applying, essentially pushing back against my hand. But I have a lot more mass than the baseball, so that force doesn't do much to me. The equivalence is in momentum, mass x velocity. So a thing with a lot of mass will have a much smaller velocity imparted to it. Which in the case of my arm is simply resisted and turned into heat.
passages: Section::::Examples.:'Equal and opposite'.
  
  One problem frequently observed by physics educators is that students tend to apply Newton's Third Law to pairs of 'equal and opposite' forces acting on the same object.
   As described by the third of Newton's laws of motion of classical mechanics, all forces occur in pairs such that if one object exerts a force on another object, then the second object exerts an equal and opposite reaction force on the first. The third law is also more generally stated as: "To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts." The attribution of which of the two forces is the action and which is the reaction is arbitrary. Either of the two can be considered the action, while the other is its associated reaction.
   These three pairs produce combinations of colors for us through the opponent process. Furthermore, according to this theory, for each of these three pairs, three types of chemicals in the retina occur, in which two types of chemical reactions exist. These reactions would yield one member of the pair in their building up phase, or "anabolic process", whereas they would yield the other member while in a destructive phase, or a "catabolic process".
   In most cases, both mechanisms will lead to the same product, as the sites of kinetic and thermodynamic deprotonation will coincide.
  
  Section::::Scope and limitations.
   A possible cause of this problem is that the Third Law is often stated in an abbreviated form: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction," without the details, namely that these forces act on two different objects. Moreover, there is a causal connection between the weight of something and the normal force: if an object had no weight, it would not experience support force from the table, and the weight dictates how strong the support force will be. This causal relationship is not due to the Third Law but to other physical relations in the system.
   If the object is supported so that it remains at rest, for instance by a cable from which it is hanging, or by a surface underneath, or by a liquid on which it is floating, there is also a support force in upward direction (tension force, normal force, buoyant force, respectively). This support force is an 'equal and opposite' force; we know this not because of Newton's Third Law, but because the object remains at rest, so that the forces must be balanced.
   In this circumstance, it may be expected that there may also be active other drivers of diffusive flux of internal energy, such as gradient of chemical potential which drives transfer of matter, and gradient of electric potential which drives electric current and iontophoresis; such effects usually interact with diffusive flux of internal energy driven by temperature gradient, and such interactions are known as cross-effects.
   Section::::Steric activity of the lone pair.
   This is incorrect; the Third Law refers to forces on two different objects. For example, a book lying on a table is subject to a downward gravitational force (exerted by the earth) and to an upward normal force by the table. Since the book is not accelerating, these forces must be exactly balanced, according to Newton's First or Second law. They are therefore 'equal and opposite'. However, these forces are not always equally strong; they will be different if the book is pushed down by a third force, or if the table is slanted, or if the table-and-book system is in an accelerating elevator. The case of three or more forces
   is covered by considering the sum of all forces.
   Section::::Observations in space.
  
  The strongest evidence for interchange transport of plasma in any magnetosphere is the observation of injection events. The recording of these events in the magnetospheres of Earth, Jupiter and Saturn are the main tool for the interpretation and analysis of interchange motion.
  
  Section::::Observations in space.:Earth.
   In this case, experiments have determined that this reaction takes place according to the rate law formula_1. This form suggests that the rate-determining step is a reaction between two molecules of NO. A possible mechanism for the overall reaction that explains the rate law is:
  
  Each step is called an elementary step, and each has its own rate law and molecularity. The elementary steps should add up to the original reaction. (Meaning, if we were to cancel out all the molecules that appear on both sides of the reaction, we would be left with the original reaction.)
   When a match is rubbed against the side of a matchbox, the effect is not the appearance of an elephant or the sounding of a drum, but fire.
  
  The effect is not arbitrary because the match is ordered towards the end of fire which is realized through efficient causes.
  
  In their theoretical study of organism, more specifically propagating organisation of process, Kauffman "et al." remark (p30): 
  
  Section::::In modern science.
   BULLET::::- Synergistic interaction means that the effect of two chemicals taken together is greater than the sum of their separate effect at the same doses. An example is pesticide and fertilizer.
  
  BULLET::::- Antagonistic interaction means that the effect of two chemicals is actually less than the sum of the effect of the two drugs taken independently of each other. This is because the second chemical increases the excretion of the first, or even directly blocks its toxic actions. Antagonism forms the basis for antidotes of poisonings.
  
  Section::::Biology and genetics.
   Section::::Examples.
  
  Aposematism in poison frogs has also shown that phenotypic integration may be involved. Aposematism is the use of warning colors to deter predators because it often conveys the organism being poisonous, and this study found that diet specialization, and chemical defense are integrated and help affect aposematism. 
   Section::::Bonus chain.
   Multiple Sufficient Causes: He or she may believe that either cause A or cause B suffices to produce a given effect (Kelley et al., 1980). For example, if an athlete fails a drug test (effect), we reason that he or she may be attempting to cheat (cause A) or may have been tricked into taking a banned substance (cause B). Either cause sufficiently attributes to the effect (McLeod, 2010).
   BULLET::::- The incompatible response method pairs the stimuli that causes the habitual behavior with another stimulus that triggers a response that is opposite or incompatible with the habit that you want to get rid of.
  
  Section::::Historical relevance.
   In many physical and biological systems, qualitatively different influences can oppose each other. For example, in biochemistry, one set of chemicals drives the system in a given direction, whereas another set of chemicals drives it in an opposing direction. If one or both of these opposing influences are non-linear, equilibrium point(s) result.
  
  In biology, this process (in general, biochemical) is often referred to as homeostasis; whereas in mechanics, the more common term is equilibrium.
   Keeping the research problem in mind, the behavior of elements in the system and their interactions are studied. Elements of a system can interact positively or negatively, that is, the level of an element may activate or reduce the rate of production of other elements or of itself. These interactions are represented as positive (activation) or negative (inhibition). 
   However, it is still true that F = F and F = F, as this is required by Newton's Third Law.
  
  Section::::Examples.:Causal misinterpretation.
  
  The terms 'action' and 'reaction' have the misleading suggestion of causality, as if the 'action' is the cause and 'reaction' is the effect. It is therefore easy to think of the second force as being there because of the first, and even happening some time after the first. This is incorrect; the forces are perfectly simultaneous, and are there for the same reason.
   The only influences that neurons can have on one another are excitation, inhibition, and—through modulatory transmitters—biasing one another's excitability. From such a small set of basic interactions, a chain of neurons can produce only a limited response. A pathway can be facilitated by excitatory input; removal of such input constitutes "disfacillitation". A pathway may also be inhibited; removal of inhibitory input constitutes "disinhibition", which, if other sources of excitation are present in the inhibitory input, can augment excitation.
   Paul Watzlawick "et al". describes the concept in his book, "Change", noting, "... the circularity of their interaction makes it undecidable ... whether a given action is the cause or effect of an action by the other party ... either party sees its actions as determined and provoked by the other's actions ...".
  
  Rodger Garrett also employs the concept in his millennial-era work on borderline personality disorder and family of origin etiology, typically using the term “reciprocal reactivity” along with it.
   Section::::Nervous system divisions.:Peripheral nervous system.
   BULLET::::2. Symport: S (out) + [H or Na] (out) ⇌ S (in) + [H or Na] (in)
  
  BULLET::::3. Antiport: S (out) + S (in) ⇌ S (in) + S (out) (S may be H or a solute)
  
  Section::::Mechanism.:Substrate specificity.
  
presuppositions: Action and reaction are the only factors in play for physics. An equal reaction is one that undoes an action to balance it out.
corrections: There is more to action and reaction such as mass and velocity. An equal reaction represents equivalence in momentum.
raw_presuppositions: Action and reaction are the only factors in play for physics. An equal reaction is one that undoes an action to balance it out.
raw_corrections: There is more to action and reaction such as mass and velocity. An equal reaction represents equivalence in momentum.