Q27 of 124 Page 55

Describe the term ‘inertia’ with respect to motion.

Inertia can easily be described as the reluctance or resistance of a body to change its state of motion i.e. if a body is at rest, it will continue to remain at rest if an external force is not applied to change its state of rest whereas if a body is in motion, it will continue to remain in motion if an external force is not applied to change its state of motion.


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25

Calculate the momentum of the following:

(a) an elephant of mass 2000 kg moving at 5 m/s


(b) a bullet of mass 0.02 kg moving at 400 m/s

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Which of the two, balanced forces or unbalanced forces, can change the shape of an object? Give an example to illustrate your answer.

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State Newton’s first law of motion. Give two examples to illustrate Newton’s first law of motion.

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On what factor does the inertia of a body depend? Which has more inertia, a cricket ball or a rubber ball of the same size?