Are Seniors Subject to Newton’s Laws?

March 2025

By Richard Fleming

Truth be told, I sometimes fall prey to what might be called “senior exceptionalism.” I view my fellow oldsters as quite remarkable people. Our generation was born into an era marked by turmoil and strife, at home and abroad. Racial injustice was pervasive. Women’s place was in the home. Political assassinations were not unusual. Our country was fighting a bloody war to keep Viet Nam from turning into… what was it again?

The Baby Boomers did not rest serenely during these years. We worked hard trying to improve our country and our world. We did many things well. We did many things not so well. But we tried. We worked hard at our jobs. We raised our families in the best way we knew how. And we have mostly now entered our golden years, after a lifetime of service. We are truly an exceptional group of people.

However.

We may be extraordinary but we cannot escape the rules governing the physical world we inhabit. Our minds and bodies are subject to the laws of physics, chemistry, biology, and aging. Wishful thinking offers no safe harbor.

Occasionally my mind wanders into speculation about ethereal topics like longevity, human durability (or lack thereof), extra-terrestrial life and what form it might take, spirituality, the possibility of an afterlife, and what my wife and I will have for dinner tonight. You know, topics which old people tend to ruminate about because we have too much time on our hands.

But inevitably such mental diversions are interrupted by the need to empty the bladder or take out the trash. And it is in these moments, when I attempt to heft myself up off the couch, that I am forced to remember the constraints of immutable physical laws. In particular, I am confronted by the challenges of living in a world governed by Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, published in 1686.

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What were those three laws again?

First, he observed that an object at rest tends to remain at rest, and an object in motion tends to remain at motion. Well, this applies to me. In spades. Especially the part about a body at rest. As an old guy, when I need to arise from the couch, it takes a significant force of will to overcome Newton’s first law. Once I get going, though, it is fairly easy to keep going in the same direction at the same speed until the bathroom door approaches. It is at moments like these that I marvel at Newton’s wisdom.

His second law says the acceleration of an object depends on the mass of the object and the amount of force applied. How does this apply? When taking a morning walk with my wife on the trail behind our house, even though we are moseying along at a pretty good clip, younger folks easily pass us by. And they are not even breathing heavily. I was dismayed by such youthful disregard and insolent behavior until I remembered this second law. It was a definite “aha moment” for me. My mass has definitely increased with age, and the amount of force my legs can apply has clearly decreased with age. Eureka! Now I understand. I can try as hard as I want, but Newton’s second law brooks no exceptions. With more mass and less force, my ability to accelerate will be less than what can be mustered by those youngsters dashing past.

The third law tells us that whenever one object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. This certainly helps explain many of the phenomena I experience on a daily basis. I understand now why, when I am using a wrench to try to loosen a rusted nut, it is extremely hard. That nut is clearly pushing back against me. When I try to slide a heavy couch a few inches to clean the floor, the couch is obviously resisting my efforts. And, most importantly perhaps, I now understand what is happening when I am sometimes a bit constipated. I can push all I want, but the matter I am trying to expel just pushes back. It’s just science. Newton’s third law.

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Science can be very useful in helping us old folks understand and navigate the challenges of the world we live in. Newton’s laws in particular can help us realize that the problems we increasingly face are not our fault. When we experience difficulties with standing and walking, with our activities of daily living, they are explainable by scientific laws.

In conclusion, I still believe in senior exceptionalism. But I also admit that despite our special status, we are still subject to the laws of science. And most of us seniors have learned, after many decades of trials and tribulations, joy and sorrow, that we must obey the law.

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