When momentum is in action, does compression or tension resistance slow or stop it?

Question

A building is in motion after being impacted, and is leaning; since to stop an equal force requires an equal force, of equal mass, according to Newton's 3rd Laws of Physics, and you do not have an equal sized building to stick in the way of the falling building, do you stop the building in motion with a compression resistant or a tension resistant object?
And how.
There is an answer to this.

Steve, eyeonthe...; remember that buildings are anchored, and that momentum is a force.

Buildings are assembled with a compression-primary resistant closed-net of rigid materials. There is a simpler answer than adding compression-resistant, spring-actions. In action-reaction laws, there are two forces in play, compression and tension. (pushing-pulling) In rigid framed structures, what is the consistantly missing of these two forces? As the formula A+B=C, rigid frames follow A+A+a+a+A+...., which cannot reach C, physically.
With all of this, there is still an answer.

Answer 1

After being impacted, the building acts like a spring with mass. This oscillates back and forth with decreasing amplitude due to friction in the system. The energy originally imparted to the building by the impact is eventually dissipated as heat.

You do not have to have an equal sized building in the way to produce the required restoring force. This is caused by the reaction loads between the base of the building and the ground, consisting of shear and moment components.

Answer 2

Buildings react differently to impact. Some are very brittle; so an impact could snap them in two. Some can bend a bit; so they could lean and come back; just like a spring that gets pushed over from the side.

Newton's law is about force; not mass. And equal but opposite force does not necessarily mean an equal but opposite mass.

For example, you place a box weighing W = mg on top a coiled spring and the spring compresses delX from its neutral point. As neither the spring nor the box is moving, there is an equal but opposite force acting on the box/spring where the two are touching.

So we can write a net force f = ma = W - F = 0; where F = k delX, the upward force of the spring with coefficient k pushing against the weight (W) of the box of mass m. The mass of the spring is not considered in this equation...just its force from compression.

To be sure, mass is often a component (a factor) in determining force. But, as we've seen above, it does not always have to be.

So Newton's laws are about forces, not masses, even though mass is often considered. In the case of a pliable building, if it does not exceed its snapping point, it will come back because of forces similar to those of a compressed spring snapping back after whatever was compressing it is removed.