2.

3
UNDERSTANDIN
G INERTIA
 Play : DODO

Watch the motion carefully.

Everyday life experiences
You lurch forward You lurch backwards
when the car stops when the car starts to
suddenly. move suddenly.
You are running and accidentally .......

Banana
Rock
skin

you kick a rock. you steps on banana skin .

You lurch forward You lurch backwards

Your feet is brought to Your feet are carried

a stop, but the inertia of forward with a higher
your body tends to velocity but the inertia
continue moving of your body keeps you
forward. in the initial velocity.
The examples show that our body
has an inbuilt resistance to any
change in its state of rest or motion.

This reluctance to change is called

inertia
Carry out Hands-on activity 2.5
(practical book pg 15)

to gain an idea of inertia

The concept of inertia was explained by Sir
Isaac Newton in the first law of motion.

Newton’s first law of motion states

that

The inertia of an object is the

tendency of the object to remain at
rest or, if moving, to continue its
uniform motion in a straight line.
Situations involving inertia

A body at rest tends to

stay at rest
When the cardboard is flicked, the
coin remains in the initial position
When the stack of coins is flicked
by a ruler, the bottom coin is
knocked off . Others remain at rest.
When the tablecloth is pulled swiftly
and horizontally, all the tableware
remains on top of the table.
Situations involving inertia

A body in motion tends to

stay in motion
When the umbrella has stopped
spinning, droplets of water are
spun off .
can’t stop
immediately

The car has stopped but the man

in the car is still moving forward.
Relationship between
mass and inertia
Hard to get moving easy to get moving
Hard to get moving easy to get moving
easy to get moving Hard to get moving
Hard to get the moving tanker to stop.
The fat boy is more difficult to stop.
It is difficult to stop the bowling ball
from rolling.
Do not stand in the way of a moving
truck. It is very difficult for it to stop.
 CONCLUSION
• An object with a larger mass is
difficult to get started from rest.
• Once moving, an object with a larger
mass is difficult to stop its motion.

An object with a larger

mass has a larger inertia
 Carry out Hands-on activity 2.6
(adapted from practical
book pg 20)

to find out the relationship

between inertia and mass
 Discussion Hand-on activity 2.6
1. The quantity used to represent
inertia is the period of oscillation.

2. When the mass increases, the

inertia increases.

3. Objects with a large mass have a

large inertia. It is difficult to set an
object of large mass in motion or to
stop it.
The positive effect
of inertia
Chili sauce in
the bottle can be
poured out by a
quick downward
movement
followed by a
sudden stop
Inertia of the
sauce caused it
to continue its
downward
movement.
The head of the
hammer is secured
tightly to its handle
by knocking the
bottom of the
handle against
hard surface.
The head of the
hammer has a big
inertia .It continues
the downward
movement.
The oil
drilling
platform
floating in
the sea.

The platform is very massive and has a very

big inertia so that it can stand in the same
place perpetually.
The child Elephant has a large mass
chased by and hence has a large
an elephant inertia. It is very difficult for
ran in a it to change the direction
zigzag path. of motion.
The negative effect
of inertia
 Passengers
of the car
might be
crash into
parts of the
car or thrown
out from a
car during an
accident.

To reduce the risk, (iii) Headrest to

(i) wear seat belts prevent whiplash
(ii) air bag system injuries to the neck.
To reduce the
risk,
all these
items must be
securely
fasten to the
lorry.
Item such as furniture and larger electrical
appliances may
(i) fall off the lorry when the lorry starts to
move.
(ii) thrown forward when the lorry brakes
suddenly.
 Great
impact
from the
movement
of the liquid
forward
when the
To reduce the risk, a lorry tankers lorry stops
(i) has a strong iron structure suddenly.
between the driver’s cabin
and the load
(ii) divide internally into
compartments.