inertial








noun

  1. inertness, especially with regard to effort, motion, action, and the like; inactivity; sluggishness.
  2. Physics.
    1. the property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force.
    2. an analogous property of a force: electric inertia.
  3. Medicine/Medical. lack of activity, especially as applied to a uterus during childbirth when its contractions have decreased or stopped.

noun

  1. the state of being inert; disinclination to move or act
  2. physics
    1. the tendency of a body to preserve its state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force
    2. an analogous property of other physical quantities that resist changethermal inertia
adj.

1737, from inertia + -al (1).

n.

1713, introduced as a term in physics 17c. by German astronomer and physician Johann Kepler (1571-1630), from Latin inertia “unskillfulness, idleness,” from iners (genitive inertis) “unskilled, inactive;” see inert. Used in Modern Latin by Newton (1687). Sense of “apathy” first recorded 1822.

n.

  1. The tendency of a body to resist acceleration; the tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in motion to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force.
  2. Resistance or disinclination to motion, action, or change.

  1. The resistance of a body to changes in its momentum. Because of inertia, a body at rest remains at rest, and a body in motion continues moving in a straight line and at a constant speed, unless a force is applied to it. Mass can be considered a measure of a body’s inertia. See more at Newton’s laws of motion. See also mass.

In physics, the tendency for objects at rest to remain at rest, and for objects in uniform motion to continue in motion in a straight line, unless acted on by an outside force. (See Newton’s laws of motion.)

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