

the container was moving in one direction and you attempted to change its direction.the container was in motion and you attempted to stop it.the container was at rest and you attempted to move it.The water would have a tendency to spill from the container during specific locations on the track. Suppose that you filled a baking dish to the rim with water and walked around an oval track making an attempt to complete a lap in the least amount of time. This concept of a balanced versus and unbalanced force will be discussed in more detail later in Lesson 1. unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." As the long as the forces are not unbalanced - that is, as long as the forces are balanced - the first law of motion applies. The condition is described by the phrase ". There is an important condition that must be met in order for the first law to be applicable to any given motion. All objects resist changes in their state of motion - they tend to "keep on doing what they're doing." The state of motion of an object is maintained as long as the object is not acted upon by an unbalanced force. If in motion with a leftward velocity of 2 m/s, they will continue in this same state of motion (2 m/s, left). If in motion with an eastward velocity of 5 m/s, they will continue in this same state of motion (5 m/s, East). If at rest, they will continue in this same state of rest. The behavior of all objects can be described by saying that objects tend to "keep on doing what they're doing" ( unless acted upon by an unbalanced force). The two parts are summarized in the following diagram. There are two clauses or parts to this statement - one that predicts the behavior of stationary objects and the other that predicts the behavior of moving objects. Newton's first law of motion is often stated as An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

The focus of Lesson 1 is Newton's first law of motion - sometimes referred to as the law of inertia. These three laws have become known as Newton's three laws of motion. Isaac Newton (a 17th century scientist) put forth a variety of laws that explain why objects move (or don't move) as they do. In this unit (Newton's Laws of Motion), the ways in which motion can be explained will be discussed. In a previous chapter of study, the variety of ways by which motion can be described (words, graphs, diagrams, numbers, etc.) was discussed.
