Newton's third law violations

[Pyrotex]

kamil is correct – one can’t effectively answer a question like “what would happen given these initial conditions if these (Newton’s) laws of physics did not apply?” ...

Part of the problem with inquiries such as this is a linguistic problem.

We say "laws" of nature, or Newton's Third "Law", and we immediately associate that with a (any) legal system, where the laws are created, chosen, selected. There is a certain sense that the "laws" are separate from reality and merely imposed upon reality by choice, caveat, edict, whatever.

 

This is NOT the case with natural laws in general, and Newton's 3rd in particular. It may in fact be impossible to discuss questions like, "but what if Newton's 3rd did not apply?" because no such Universe is possible. It's behavior (if it had any at all) would be self-contradictory.

 

The 3rd Law is not like the roof of a house, and you can ask "what would happen if there were no roof?". The 3rd Law is more like Time. To ask "what would happen if there were no Time?" can only be answered by the Zen reply, "MU" -- which unasks the question.