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Physics LibreTexts

5: Inertia

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  • 5.1: What is Inertial Motion?
    Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion. This includes changes to the object's speed, direction, or state of rest. Inertia is also defined as the tendency of objects to keep moving in a straight line at a constant velocity.
  • 5.2: The Equivalence Principle
    The equivalence principle deals with the equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass, and to Einstein's observation that the gravitational "force" as experienced locally while standing on a massive body (such as the Earth) is the same as the pseudo-force experienced by an observer in a non-inertial (accelerated) frame of reference.
  • 5.E: Inertia (Exercises)

Thumbnail: According to Galileo’s student Viviani, Galileo dropped a cannonball and a musketball simultaneously from the leaning tower of Pisa, and observed that they hit the ground at nearly the same time. This contradicted Aristotle’s long-accepted idea that heavier objects fell faster.


This page titled 5: Inertia is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Benjamin Crowell via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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