Newton's Laws - Mission NL1 Detailed Help


The velocities and masses of four objects are shown. Rank these objects in order ...



 
Definition of Inertia:
Inertia is the property of an object which describes its natural tendency to keep on doing whatever it is doing.
Not all objects have the same amount of inertia. Some objects have more than others. That is why inertia is sometimes described as a property of an object. Such a property cannot depend on how slow or how fast the object is moving. Consider this analogy: color is a property of your car. If your car is red, then the color red describes an intrinsic property of your car. If your car turned colors as you began to speed up, then red would not be an appropriate property to describe your car. In the same sense, inertia is a property of an object. And being a property of an object, the inertia of the object cannot be different at lower speeds as it is at higher speeds. Inertia depends solely upon mass - which for our purposes, is that unchangeable quantity which describeshow much stuff an object possesses. In this sense, inertia - or mass - is an intrinsic property of an object.