Newton's three laws...? Physics class.?

[jolie]

"john jumps up and jams the ball through a hoop" which of newtons laws is it?law of inertia, law of acceleration, or the third, something about action-reaction.

[felabeorbt]

It's kind of a silly question, because all 3 of Newton's laws always hold, all the time, and in every situation. And BTW, the 1st law ("inertia") is a special case of the 2nd ("acceleration"), in which the acceleration is 0.

In this scenario, there are lots of things going on.
"John jumps up"
-- he pushes downward against the floor, which pushes back on him with equal force in the opposite direction, upward -- that's the 3rd Law -- "action-reaction." (The downward force applied against the floor causes the Earth to accelerate in that direction, but due to Earth's overwhelming mass, the amount of this acceleration is tiny beyond imagination.) Then the upward ("reaction") force that the ground exerts on him, makes him accelerate upward -- that's the 2nd Law -- "acceleration," propelling him off the ground and up toward the hoop. While he is off the ground, and on his way up, the force of gravity is accelerating him downward, which causes his upward speed to diminish -- that's the 2nd Law -- "acceleration," and eventually reverse, sending him back to the floor. (Again, because of the 3rd Law, there is an equal and opposite force of gravity applied by John to the Earth, but the acceleration of the Earth is miniscule.)

"and jams the ball through a hoop"
-- his hand pushes the ball downward, which causes it to accelerate downward, and pass through the hoop, if he aimed well -- that's the 2nd Law again -- "acceleration." When he does that, the ball exerts an equal and opposite force on his hand, which causes him to experience an unnoticeably slight, but real, acceleration upward.

All the while, the hoop, which is attached to the board, which is attached to the support post, which is fastened to the floor, is experiencing the downward force of gravity, which is canceled by the upward force of the floor supporting it, so that the net force on it is 0, and so it remains at rest the whole time -- that's the 1st Law -- "inertia."

So you've really got all 3 laws at work there, as they are everywhere, all the time!