4 ms·
Former physics person here. Inertia as a technical term is literally the mass or momentum. As a colloquial term I've also heard it used for both and in general
by Manishearth 10y ago
Former physics person here. Inertia as a technical term is literally the mass or momentum. As a colloquial term I've also heard it used for both and in general to mean "inability to be slowed down", but it gets used more often to mean "inability to speed up". So it's ambiguous, but correct.
- Ygg2 10y agoYeah, but colloquially inertia "a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged."
- Manishearth 10y agoLike I said, it depends. Colloquially it is also "inability to slow down". The "inability to speed up" is more common, but it doesn't invalidate the first one.
- StavrosK 10y agoThis is true, but, in a physics context, an object that has velocity keeps that velocity when it remains unchanged (ie, like the GP said, it's literally momentum).