Question

If a student sits on their chair, what is the opposite reaction occurring?

1. gravity pushes up
2. chair pushes up
3. gravity pulls down
4. chair pulls down

Answer 1

The opposite reaction when a student sits on a chair is the chair pushing up, which exemplifies Newton's Third Law of motion, demonstrating the equal and opposite reaction force called the normal force.

Step-by-step explanation:

When a student sits on their chair, the opposite reaction occurring is that the chair pushes up. This is an illustration of Newton's Third Law of motion, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The action force is the student pushing down on the chair with their weight, and the reaction force is the chair pushing upward on the student with an equal force. This force exerted by the chair is often termed the normal force, which is a support force exerted upon an object that is in contact with another stable object.