MEASURING MY NEWTONS
Tuesday Oct. 23, 2018
Newton came up with his third law of motion …
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, dealing with how objects act and react, move and move things.
A foundational physics thing, right?
Are human actions applicable too – did Newton have more in mind?
One recent Monday I received an email – I’d posed a question the previous Friday. At 8:05AM Monday the reply arrived. It wasn’t so much an adequate one word yes/no, as it was a forceful 100 word lecture, a rebuke, from a company which provides me services, but you couldn’t grasp that nuance from the writer’s words or tone. Seemed the other way around – as if I was a servant of their company. Funny, they send me invoices which I pay – I thought they were in the business of serving me …
And then there was my reaction. I’ve not reacted outwardly.
I’ve not replied.
But have I reacted as swiftly as Newton might have predicted? Not yet.
One day soon when it pleases me, I’ll take my business elsewhere. I’ll vote with my feet.
Maybe that’s what Newton was really talking about …
I’ll bet most company’s owners don’t know why they lose customers. I could tell them, but based on their employee ‘doing their job’, moving my business to a different supplier is surely the better way to send my message.
This has been good for me – this whole thing has produced an equal and opposite reaction, in terms of what I do and ‘how I do’ in serving my clients. I’ve changed my methods and attitude. Not a lot, but a little and that would have never happened if it weren’t for that 8:05AM email. And none of this would have happened if it weren’t for Newton. You see, Newton didn’t invent this phenomenon – he simply and elegantly described something that was already happening. So much of science we know today has derived from his identification of a naturally occurring physical physics thing. To my knowledge he never applied his observations to human actions and reactions. I don’t know if the math is the same, but for me the feeling suggests it might be.
P.S.; for those who don’t know, when you push a door equipped with closing hardware – there is an amount of tension/resistance; adjustable, and measurable. Building codes requires a certain ‘range’ for those settings. That measurement unit it called a Newton, international unit of measure for FORCE.
Reader feedback:
OH MY, LOOK AT THE TIME
Your day sounds delightful, and yet your ending is somewhat regretful…not sure of your revaluation…but the soup sounds delicious!, SF, Lethbridge, AB
ALL I WANT IS A ROOM SOMEWHERE
Hi I am really enjoying your writings, articles blogs etc. Thanks Mark. Would like a meeting if you have the time, CM, Calgary, AB
