Inertia :: essays research papers

Centuries of thought and experimentation by several of the superlative minds to ever walk the earth have contributed to the awareness of this property of government issue known as Inertia. It all began with the investigation of an ancient Greek scientist and philosopher by the name of Aristotle. Through countless observations and hypotheses, Aristotle grew almost certain of a a few(prenominal) things involving motion.      Aristotles findings suggested mainly that Earthly objective lenss seek their natural place at rest. This natural place related to earth, water, air and fire respectably. He similarly believed that motion must be subjected to unnatural staff office, meaning motion could not come about without it. In order to maintain this motion, Aristotle stated that eviscerate must be applied to the object constantly. These four statements were considered concrete in the world of physics for nearly two thousand years after Aristotles passing. It would t ake an Italian physicist and astronomer named Galileo to eventually disprove his thoughts on motion.      Galileo proposed his formulation of the concept of inertia, which is the property of matter that causes it to resist any variegate of its motion in either direction or speed. In setback words, if an object in a state of motion possesses an inertia, it causes the object to remain in that state of motion unless an external force acts on it. Galileo figured this out by first meticulously observing Aristotles concept of motion. By virtue of a series of experiments, Galileo realized that the synopsis of Aristotle was incorrect because it failed to account properly for a hidden force, the frictional force between the surface and the object. For example if one were to push a stop over of wood across a table, there would be two opposing forces that act, one of them being the force associated with the push and the other, the force that is associated with the fri ction, which acts in the opposite direction. Galileo realized as the frictional forces were decreased the object would move barely and further before stopping.      An English mathematician and physicist by the name of Sir Issac Newton would later on develop Galilieos idea of inertia into one of his three scientific laws. Aware of other factors that played a roll in the opening of inertia, Newton proposed two other laws that supported it. They are included in his famous three laws of motion. The first law of motion states "a embody in motion shall remain in motion moving with a constant speed and direction, unless acted on by an outside force".