Inertia

Essay by raheemaHigh School, 10th grade February 2014

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The resistance of an object to a change in its state of motion or rest

Inertia is also known as Newton's First Law:

An object will stay at rest or uniform velocity unless acted upon by an u nbalanced force

Example: A- a marble is rolled down the first ramp, which is set at a slight incline. The marble will speed up on its way down the ramp. B- Now, you give a gentle push to the marble going uphill on the second ramp. It will slow down as it goes up. C- Y ou push a marble on a ramp that is perfectly horizontal. In this case, the marble will neither slow down nor speed up. In fact, it should keep rolling. Forever.

Importance of wearing safety belts: Safety belts are designed to protect passengers against sudden changes in a cars movement. According to Newton's first law an object will continue to move unless something stops. The safety belt is meant to be the resisting force to stop an object (passenger) from moving. If one does not wear the safety belt, when the car stops abruptly you will continue moving at the same velocity, until something, or an external force will stop you .

The Law Of Inertia Applied to Driving : The law of inertia is most commonly experienced when riding in cars and trucks.

When in a car, as the car accelerates, the passengers accelerate with it; as the car decelerates, the passengers decelerate with it; and as the car maintains a constant speed, the passengers maintain a constant speed as well. I f the car was to collide with a wall, upon contact with the wall, an unbalanced force acts upon the car to abruptly decelerate it to rest. Any passengers in the...