Let’s see what happens when you take Newton’s Third Law and translate it into French, then German, then Spanish, then Arabic, then Chinese, then Russian, then back to English. Here’s what I put in.
Newton’s Third Law
Forces between two bodies simultaneously come in pairs of equal magnitude and of the same type along the same line of action but in opposite directions.
And here is what came out:
Between two objects, equal and similar forces occur simultaneously, acting in the same direction, but in opposite directions.
Hmmm, not great, not terrible. It kept the two objects part and the idea that the forces occur simultaneously, but then contradicts itself with the magnitude (equal and similar, well, which?) and the direction. Maybe the similar refers to the type of force? Let’s run another law through.
Kirchhoff’s Second Law
The net potential difference around a loop in a circuit is equal to zero.
That translated really well into:
The net potential difference around a loop in a circuit is zero.
It just dropped two words, and it works! I’m really impressed by that. Let’s try another law.
Coulomb’s Law
The electrostatic force between two charged bodies is proportional to the product of the charges of the two bodies and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two centres of charge.
Became:
The electrostatic force between two charged bodies is directly proportional to the product of the charges of the two bodies and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centers of the charge.
Huh, far too similar. Let’s send it through more languages!!
I sent the phrase through archaic languages like Latin and Sanskrit, but it came out the same:
The electrostatic force between two charged bodies is directly proportional to the product of the charges on the two bodies and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centers of charge
The full stop vanished. That’s about it. So I suspect Google Translate is doing something clever behind the scenes. Plan B, take the phrase and run it through the translator between lots of languages, with no cookies tracking and clearing cache between each translation. Let’s stick with Coulomb’s Law for now.
Part of the issue I think is that some words are not being translated. Here’s the Latin:
Vis electrostatic inter duo corpora accusata directe proportionalis est producto criminum in corpora duorum et reciproce proportionalis ad quadratum distantiae inter centra praecepti.
It didn’t translate electrostatic! It’s cheating! (Fair enough, the word didn’t exist in Ancient Rome.)
Translating into Sanskrit (using devanagari script) from Latin:
द्वयोः आभारितपिण्डयोः मध्ये विद्युत्स्थैतिकबलं द्वयोः पिण्डयोः उपरि आभारस्य गुणनफलस्य प्रत्यक्षतया आनुपातिकं भवति तथा च आभारकेन्द्रयोः मध्ये दूरस्य वर्गस्य विपरीतरूपेण आनुपातिकं भवति
Right, hopping over from Sanskrit into Japanese gives:
2 つの帯電した物体間の静電力は、2 つの物体の電荷の積に正比例し、電荷中心間の距離の 2 乗に反比例します。
And back into English:
The electrostatic force between two charged objects is directly proportional to the product of the charges on the two objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centers of charge.
Conclusion
Even Google Translate struggles to understand Newton’s Third Law, even though it seems to understand other physical laws without any issues! How very fascinating!
Reminder: Weekly Live Tuition Sessions!
SUNDAY 11th January
GCSE Physics 9:30am – 10:20am Infrared radiation A-Level Physics 10:30am – 11:20am Measurement of specific charge GCSE Astronomy 11:30am – 12:20pm Exploring the moon If you wish to enrol on the tuition sessions and haven’t yet, then click enrol below
Physics with Keith 