law of iner tia , postulate in physics that, if a body is at rest or moving at
a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a
straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force. The law
of inertia was first formulated by Galileo Galilei for horizontal motion
on Earth and was later generalized by René Descartes. Before Galileo it had
been thought that all horizontal motion required a direct cause, but Galileo
deduced from his experiments that a body in motion would remain in motion
unless a force (such as friction) caused it to come to rest. This law is also the
first of Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion.
Although the principle of inertia is the starting point and the fundamental
assumption of classical mechanics, it is less than intuitively obvious to the
untrained eye. In Aristotelian mechanics, and in ordinary experience, objects
that are not being pushed tend to come to rest. The law of inertia was deduced
by Galileo from his experiments with balls rolling down inclined planes.
a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a
straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force. The law
of inertia was first formulated by Galileo Galilei for horizontal motion
on Earth and was later generalized by René Descartes. Before Galileo it had
been thought that all horizontal motion required a direct cause, but Galileo
deduced from his experiments that a body in motion would remain in motion
unless a force (such as friction) caused it to come to rest. This law is also the
first of Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion.
Although the principle of inertia is the starting point and the fundamental
assumption of classical mechanics, it is less than intuitively obvious to the
untrained eye. In Aristotelian mechanics, and in ordinary experience, objects
that are not being pushed tend to come to rest. The law of inertia was deduced
by Galileo from his experiments with balls rolling down inclined planes.
