Ice Skating Analogy

Imagine two people on ice skates that will represent the two bodies experiencing a force.

If A throws a bowling ball to B, A slides back when they release it and B moves back when they catch it. Repeatedly throwing the ball back and forth moves A and B away from each other, the force causes repulsion.

The analogy falls a little short when thinking of attraction, but bear with it.

Now imagine that A and B are exchanging a boomerang (bear with it), throwing it behind them pushes A towards B, B catches it from behind and moves towards A. The force causes attraction.