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Newton's First Law of Motion:
An object at rest will tend to stay at rest; an object in motion will tend to stay in motion with the same speed and direction, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
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Inertia is simply the tendency of any object to keep on doing whatever it is doing. It is the natural tendency of an object to stubbornly maintain the same speed and the same direction that it has at any given moment. The tendency to continue in a straight line can only be disrupted by the presence of an unbalanced force. For the ball moving around the circle, the unbalanced force is caused by the wall of the circular ring pushing on the ball towards the circle's center. This force causes the ball to change directions and travel along the curved path. When the force of the wall on the ball ceases, all forces are balanced and the ball continues along its straight-line inertial path. Circular motion requires an unbalanced and inward force. Without this unbalanced force, straight-line motion reigns.
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