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I always thought that $force$ is $mass * acceleration$. Well, that's what I learnt at school a while back. Now, I have been enlightened that force is in fact the rate of change of momentum.

What makes this interesting to me, is that this takes into account a change in mass with respect to time as also playing a role in the force. A nice example of this is that of a rocket taking off. But clearly, this was not an example that Newton had in mind.

So my question: What did Newton have in mind of something where the mass changes with time?

I appreciate that my question is similar to say: How did Newton discover his second law? but I didn't read anywhere there about the concept of change of mass with time.

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    $\begingroup$ Duplicate question. See this answer I'm not privy to Newton's thought process, but one thing is clear: the second law applies only to systems of constant mass. $\endgroup$
    – garyp
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 16:06
  • $\begingroup$ @garyp So basically, what I learnt all those years ago, is quite correct. Who would have thought it! Many thanks for the link. $\endgroup$
    – Geoff
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 20:06

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