Search In The AnswerBank

Web   Site

Inertial Mass and Inertia

Avatar Image flano
13:23 on Wed 22/Jun/05

whats the difference between these terms?

prev Conservation of momentum   Black Holes next
Report this question
Subscribe to question
 Find out more…

Please describe this clip for users who are unable to view You Tube videos, this is for their benefit.

Type your answer here
I want to subscribe to this thread

1 to 3 of 3

Avatar Image
jake-the-peg
(15:03 on Wed 22/Jun/05)

Inertia is the property of a body such that it tends to keep moving in a straight line unless forced to change.

Inertial mass is in a sense the amount of matter in a system with that property.

Because F=ma you can say it's the ratio of force you need to apply to a body to get a certain acceleration.

Note that Gravitational mass is due to another property of matter, that is it's tendency to attract other matter.

The Gravitational constant G is defined in such a way that in most applications we can consider Gravitation mass to be equivilent to inertial mass even though these are two quite distinct properties of matter
Avatar Image
Clanad
(15:08 on Wed 22/Jun/05) Simply put, one defines the other... Inertial mass is a measure of an object's inertia: its resistance to changing its state of motion when a force is applied. An object with small inertial mass changes its motion more readily, and an object with large inertial mass does so less readily... (Source, Linear Motions Systems)
Avatar Image
Clanad
(15:09 on Wed 22/Jun/05) Hmmm... Synchronocity at work again...

1 to 3 of 3

Post An Answer

Search In The AnswerBank

Web   Site

Latest posts