What is Inertia?
Inertia is a tendency of all objects and matter in the universe to remain still, or, if moving, to continue moving in the same direction unless acted on by some outside force. This constitutes the first law of motion, formulated by the famed English mathematician and astronomer (a scientist specializing in the study of matter in outer space) Isaac Newton (1642-1727). To move an object that is at rest, enough external force must be applied to overcome the object’s inertia. The larger a still object is, the more force is required to move it. In his Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, Newton sets forth his three laws of motion. Newton’s second law is that the force needed to move a still object is equal to its mass (total amount of matter in an object) times its acceleration (F = MA). The third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. …
