Newtons First Law of Motion
11-11-12 By:Caitlyn Maddox
Issac Newtons first law of motion.
English mathemitician Sir Issac Newton discovered the three laws of motion in 1687. His firs law states that an object at rest (one that is not moving) will stay at rest until an unbalanced force acts upon it, causing that object to move.
So basically what this law is saying is that if an object/item is just sitting there, motionless, then that object will continue to just sit there until an unbalanced force interacts with that object which would make it move. Once that object starts to move, it will continue to do so until another unbalanced fore, like friction, acts upon it as well.
a car comes to a complete stop...
In this picture the car is acted on by an unbalanced force (the wall) the person in the car goes flying out because it wants to stay in motion (obviously did not have their seatbelt on)
Examples of this law!
A ball sitting on a table...
How is this law used in everyday life?
Vehicles and vehicle restraints...
You may have never realised before but your own car corresponds with Newton's first law of motion! Lets say that you are in your car and you are sitting at a red light. You are at a complete stop and you are not moving therefore you will not start moving until an unbalanced force acts on your car.
Another scenario that we could use in this case could be that you are driving your car at a constant speed (you obviously have your seat belt on while doing this) and all of a sudden your car immediatley comes to a complete stop! Your body will want to keep moving forward because that is the way it was going and the law states that 'an object in motion will stay in motion' but the seatbelt in this case is the unbalanced force acting against your body which causes you to stop just like the car did.