Consider what happens when a bowling ball strikes a pin, as in the opening photo-graph. The pin is given a large velocity as a result of the collision; consequently, it flies away and hits other pins or is projected toward the backstop. Because the average force exerted on the pin during the collision is large (resulting in a large acceleration), the pin achieves the large velocity very rapidly and experiences the force for a very short time interval. According to Newton’s third law, the pin exerts a reaction force on the ball that is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force exerted by the ball on the pin. This reaction force causes the ball to accelerate, but because the ball is so much more massive than the pin, the ball’s acceleration is much less than the pin’s acceleration.