How Many Ways Can You Think of

to State Newton's First Law

(the Law of Inertia)?
1. "Every object continues in its state of rest, or of motion in a straight line at constant
speed, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces exerted on it." (Hewitt,
Paul G., Conceptual Physics, Second Edition, p. 28)
2. "Things tend to keep on doing what they're already doing." (Hewitt, p. 29)
3. An object at rest tends to stay at rest, an object in motion tends to stay in motion.
4. Objects resist accelerations.
5. Objects don't like to accelerate.
6. Left to themselves, objects don't speed up, don't slow down, and don't change
direction.
7. It requires an unbalanced force to change the velocity of an object.
8. An object at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts on it. An object in
motion will move at constant velocity unless an unbalanced force acts on it.
9. If an object has a constant velocity, then no unbalanced forces are pushing on it.
10. A force on an object tends to change its velocity. If no force pushes or pulls on an
object (or if the forces on the object cancel each other out) then the object's velocity
stays the same.
11. No unbalanced force means no acceleration.
12. No force means no acceleration.
13. If no forces act on an object (or if all of the forces that do act cancel each other out),
then the object will not:
o speed up
o slow down
o change directions
14. "Whatever an object is doing, that's what it wants to do." - Professor Julius Sumner
Miller
15. Objects don't accelerate unless "forced" to.
16. Objects don't change their velocity by themselves.
17. If an object is not accelerating, then either:
o no forces are pushing on it, or
o all of the forces that are pushing on it balance each other exactly.
18. If you see an object at rest, or moving in a straight line at constant speed, then you can
conclude that either no forces are pushing on the object, or (more likely) all of the
forces that are pushing or pulling on the object cancel each other out.
19. Consider a body on which no force acts. If the body is at rest, it will remain at rest. If
the body is moving with constant velocity, it will continue to do so. (Halliday,
Resnick, & Walker, Fundamentals of Physics, 5th Edition; p. 82)
20. If no force acts on a body, we can always find a reference frame in which that body
has no acceleration. (Halliday, Resnick, & Walker, Fundamentals of Physics, 5th
Edition; p. 82)
21. If nothing pushes on you, you won't accelerate (or decelerate, either).
22. If you leave an object at rest, it will "stay put" forever unless something pushes or
pulls on it. If you start an object moving, it will keep moving at the same speed in the
same direction forever unless something pushes or pulls on it.
23. "The velocity of a free body is constant in time." (David Layzer, Constructing the
Universe, Scientific American Library)
24. "Objects continue to do what they are doing unless acted upon by an outside force." -
Jeremy Raver
25. If Fnet = 0, then a = 0.
26. If there is no net force on an object it is in equilibrium, and vice versa.
27. Objects made of matter have inertia.
28. Inertia is a property of matter.
29. Objects like to be in equilibrium.
30. "Things keep doin' what they're doin' 'til you mess with 'em." - David Charles Schaller
31. If an object doesn't interact with any other objects, it won't accelerate.
32. "A body at rest will remain at rest until 8:45 PM the night before the science-fair
project is due, at which point the body will come rushing to the body's parents, who
are already in their pajamas, and shout, 'I JUST REMEMBERED THE SCIENCE
FAIR IS TOMORROW AND WE GOTTA GO TO THE STORE RIGHT NOW!'" -
Dave Barry