Newton's First Law is one of my favourite laws in physics, proposed by no other than the 17th-century scientists Issac Newton. He made other two laws to explain what happens to objects in motion or why they do not move. These three laws were popularly referred to as Newton's Three Laws of Motion.
[Image from Pixabay]Source: Rubber handhold in an empty commuter train to stabilise passengers from action of inertia
The Newton's First Law of Motion, or as some people would call it, the law of inertia states as follows.
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion remains in motion with the same speed and the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
In other words, terms:
An object at rest will stay at rest, forever, as long as nothing pushes or pulls on it. An object in motion will remain in motion, travelling in a straight line, forever, until something pushes or pulls on it.
In this law, there are conditions attached to have a balanced force.
- The object is at rest, where the velocity V= 0 meters per second (object at rest); or
- The object is in motion and V is not equal to zero. There is no change in direction or speed.
If the two conditions are correct, the object would forever continue on its way without any problem.
The forever part may be a bit hard to assimilate. Using a perfectly round ball bearing on a perfectly smooth inclined plane that stretches forever. A ball bearing kept on such a ramp and pushed downwards would roll down the inclined plane forever with no outside force interaction.
Or imagine a cart on a flat surface with at a speed of 3m/s, there is no friction between the tires and the ground, no air resistance, and no outside force of any kind. This cart would continue doing what it is doing (moving at a constant speed of 3m/s) forever unless an outside force causes a change in its motion.
On the other hand, if the cart is stationary, it would remain stationary (at rest) if there is no outside force acting on it.
The idea is that objects would forever do what "they are doing" until an outside force interacts with them.
Inertia is the tendency of an object to continue in its state of motion or rest. In other words, an object's tendency to resists a change of its state of motion.
Inertia and Mass
Inertia is has a direct relationship with a mass of an object. For instance, a 200kg sumo wrestler and a small 80kg sumo wrestler are at rest. Which of this two wrestler do you think can move easily? |
It is a no-brainer question as you already know the smaller wrestler is the one that would find it easier to move.
The smaller sumo wrestler has less mass so that his body would offer less resistance when an outside force ( a push from the big wrestler) acts on it. The big sumo wrestler provides more resistance to change of its position due to the more significant mass.
Some Application of Inertia in Everyday Life
But with a seat belt in place, the tendency of the body to continue with the velocity of the acceleration of the car before it hits the wall gets countered by an opposing force; which the seat belt provides.
If you have suddenly experienced sitting in a powerful car that did a 0 to 60-mile acceleration in less than 3 seconds, or just about any car that did a sudden acceleration, it would feel as if someone is pressing you into the car seat. But after some seconds, the "pressing force" stops as the car enters into a constant speed.
That phenomenon is just your inertia wanting to keep you at rest as the car surges forward, but the car seat would oppose this from happening. But when a constant speed is attained, due to no acceleration, that is the acceleration at this point is equal to zero, the force is balanced, and the occupants do not feel any opposing force.
Also, the raised headrest prevents injuries to occupant's neck when the vehicle is hit from behind.
When a car gets struck from behind, the vehicle experiences a sudden acceleration, and the head and neck are suddenly thrust back, but the car headrest counteracts this movement and suppresses this shock that may cause a neck injury.
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Gifs: Inertia in real life
The man that stepped off the train (shown in the gif above) and fell was as a result of inertia. The train was in motion when he stepped out. The inertia wanted him to continue in its present state of motion. He could have counteracted it by running as soon as he stepped on the ground and slowly stop. The paramedics should have secured the victim on the back of the car before accelerating off.
The pulling of tablecloth off a table with objects on it may look like magic of some sorts, but that is merely inertia. The tendency of the objects to remain at rest was all there is to this trick. Even though the speeding tablecloth underneath the object as its yanked off, the object remains at rest.
The trick is to have as little friction as you can between the object and the table. This trick you could do by having a smooth table surface and a cloth with less friction so that the object does not get pulled by the friction generated between it and the cloth.
References
Newton First Law of Motion
Image/Gif Reference
Gif Showing car suddenly brought to rest by a wall
Gifs: Fall from train|Fall from moving car
Gif:Pulling a cloth off table with objects trick
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As a science student in school, no one has ever explained the Newton’s Laws of motion with very detailing explanations and demonstrations. I could sing with the three laws but never had imagined then the way you broke them down . You’re indeed a value adder to the community . Keep it up, more grease to your elbow
Hi @olumideolowoyeye, thank you for finding this post useful and for your kind compliments. I do appreciate every comment on my blog. Thank you.
Science is all around us....we just need to appreciate the universal laws....
That's very correct. Life is a science.
Agree =)
quite illustrative. even in business, let me liken it to my business there are some methods or plans or strategies that when we throw out to the consumers might not yield expected results like anticipated. so we would have to sit down, go back to the drawing board and replan. so im likening the force to be the low response on the part of the consumers and the reaction to be our new plan. thanks for this post. i learnt from it
Thank you so for reading and leaving your thoughts on it.
To me Newton's first law of motion is often stated as : An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
nice write up keep it up
True. That's absolutely right. Thank you.
after reading this post, I felt like newton myself ☺
Lol.
Boss ure that kind of person that is needed here...help ur fans upvote their post..thanks bro
☺🙏
Its being ages i read this,,
Let me conclude by saying ,,
As the pusher pushes , so the pusher is pushed
We do love physics, don't we all? Thank you.
Reflection, Just remembered this topic now. Learnt it many years ago. Thanks for sharing .
I'm happy to take you back.
Greenrun, you remind of that day my Dad told me i must be in science class. Even though it wasn't my wish, i was forced to read newton's law.
Been long Man.
So, did you end up being a scientist?
Just read you post and i still remembered those laws hahah i am smart :D
I agree with you.
hahah just kidding you are more smart :D
Good to learn from the post about this laws nicely explained more better than a teacher
Thanks for the kind compliments
your way of explaining is very nice to learn something differently thanks for sharing post :)
You are very much welcome.
guy that your first gif got me cracked up. The calculations backing up these three laws are looking really ugly, thank God you didn't go that direction and finally you would've put a disclaimer on that last experiment hahahaha. thanks for sharing man.
Thank you.
@greerun this is educative. i learnt a new thing about science
Powerful topic.. I can even decide to stop school and concentrate on ur post.. Hehehe.. U teach real well
outstanding post. Newton is a great scientist. The three motion law is most important. Thanks for sharing
Thank you too.
Wow, and my o'level physics keeps coming back.
Thanks for refreshing my memory.
This is one of the many reasons I love physics, it is applicable in our day to day activities and has made life more easier of humans. I hope more theories and inventions would be made in the future
I second this thought.
I can remember vividly when I learnt this in secondary school (F. G. C PH)
Tablecloth Was The same example cited,
This post bring back fond memories
Thanks.
I'm happy to help walk you down that fond memory track. All FG school students do learn a lot :)
High school students should read this , newton's first law simplified...
Thanks for sharing..
You are welcome.
This is interesting. Though I have witnessed this law of motion several times, this is the first time I am finding material on it that is easy to grasp. Thank you
This particular law just makes itself easy to understand. Thank you.
This post makes me remember my days in school then...physics is a good course to study,.nice one greenrun
I think most people don't think it's necessary to use a seatbelt because they don't know it's importance and this simple application of physics.
I can relate to the guy who dropped from the train as I had the experience with a motorbike... I didn't know I have to run to counter the effect.
You learnt the hard way I guess.
If I had a physics teacher like you I think I would have been a physicist. Thank you for the lecture. I loved the last example, I now think these magicians do more of science and play around with minds that are not too science inclined.
Thank you for sharing this, I enjoyed it and couldn't hold myself from laughing where it called.
Thanks so much for the insightful comment. Once you know the trick, the magic may not appear as entertaining as it once was.
Yeah that's true.
I agree with you @gloglo ,he simplified physics like rice...lolzzzzzz
Great job @greenrun
17 year old kid: "Dad, dad, wake up"
Dad: "A body at rest will stay at rest, now f*ck off!"
Also your first sentence, you spelled Newton wrong. Sorry
Hehehe. How did I even miss that? Dang. Thanks a lot.
No worries!
Thanks for the wonder info..... Yeah seatbelt play a major role in safety while driving..... 👍👍
Kudos boss
Thanks for dropping by.
Though I'm not a physics student but I think I love this script.
We are all physics student one way or the other.
Hmmmm.....thats true science is life
Life is all about rules...just follow the rules
ha! This one i'm learning things i was taught before except i have better understanding. you are really good at what you do, helping us remember. I think what caught my attention was the gif of the man jumping out of the train. I guess I now understand the action of these forces, like when i jump out of a moving bus in obalende
Oh yeah? Take it easy and alight when the bus comes to a stop :)
lol one time i fell down. You know how impatient bus drivers and conductors are.
Wow, have never really relate the table cloth magic to inertia so I just picked that one.
Thanks friend...
Thanks for visiting.
Have always known about that of suddenly stepping into a train or pickup van in motion, without holding on to anything.
Great work and referencing over all. Keep been awesome.
Thank you. Be awesome too.
Hahhahaha. This has happened to me before. But it was a bicycle. It was then I learnt that when you jump down from a bicycle or moving vehicle, dont stop, keep running till you can gain the stability. This post is now classroom based. Weldone @greenrun
That short run before gradually slowing down makes all the difference as it appears as if you maintaining the motion.
very good post friends, I really like your friend post, very nice photograph friend.
I like the laws of Newton, am still learning about Newton in secondary school.
Hi @greenrun excellent post bro ..........////////////
well very nice your science post
Very good friend..
Thanks
Yes welcome
Newton was really a great scientist
I like the laws of Newton, am still learning about Newton in secondary school.
oh that gif thing is related to this i need to try this wish me luck hahaa
Good luck :)