In the play "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, there are recurring references to Newton's Laws of Motion and the Laws of Thermodynamics, in particular the Second Law under which conceptualizations are contrived that have seemingly very little to do with one another. These theories serve to prove the underlying inexactness and disorder of things that pervade life on the whole, and more specifically, the storyline of this entire play.
             Newton's laws of motion were a mark of brazen intellect that helped advance the conception of how objects move due to the various forces enacted upon them. These ideas are very clear, provable, and since their inception about 330 years ago, have pretty much become incontrovertible "laws," accepted by scientists across the globe. While the first two laws are dealing solely with how motion is created by having a net force act on an object that has mass, thus producing acceleration-the third law, which postulates that the exertion of force between two objects is reciprocal, turns out to be an important focal point throughout the play by tying in to the larger concept of balance and mutual interaction. Whereby Newton's third law is intended to operate the same for all objects, in the presence of factors such as heat and friction, it no longer seems to apply. If there were no heat or friction, or a perfect balance of heat and friction between objects, they would be in constant motion. Thus, heat and friction can are the obvious exception to the Newtonian mechanism of every action having an equal reaction. This incongruity between the laws of classical dynamics and the laws of thermodynamics serves to create a very unpredictable environment in life and quite fittingly, it mirrors the complex environment surrounding the characters of Arcadia, one in which unforeseen factors such as passion often get in the way of reason and intellect in influencing the characters' actions as well as their attitudes.
             As is th...