We have already stated Newton's First law of motion which says that a body would continue to be in state of rest or continue to move with constant
velocity unless acted upon by a net external force
Here the net external force on the body is the vector sum of all the extenal forces acting on the body
When the body at rest or in a state of motion with uniform velocity then in both the cases acceleration is zero.This implies that
a=0 for F=0
When net forces i.e vector sum of all the forces acting on the body is zero.the body is said to be in equilbrium .When rotational motion is involved
<,net torque on body should also be zero i.e their is no change in either translational or rotational motion
Since forces can be combined according to the rules of vector addition.Thus for a body to be in equilibrium R=ΣF=0
or in component form
ΣFx=0
ΣFy=0
These are the condition for the body in translational equilibrium
We will discuss about rotational equilibrium while studying torque and rotational motion
Thus Newton's First law of motion quantitatively defines the concept of force as a influence that changes the state of motion of the body
It does not say anything about what has to be done to keep object moving that is once the body gains motion by the application of force would it always
remains in the state of motion or it would come to rest
According to first law if we completely eliminates frictional forces, no forward force at all would be required to keep an object ( say a block on table)
moving once it had been set in motion
(4) Inertia and Mass
From First law of motion an object at rest would not move unless it is acted upon by a force
This inherent property of objects to remain at rest unless acted upon by a force is called intertia rest
Now consider the case of an object moving with uniform velocity along the straight line .Again from Newton's law it would continue to move with uniform
This inherent property by virtue of which a body in state of uniform motion tend to maintain its uniform motion is called inertia of motion
Combining these two statements 'The property of an object to remain in state of rest or uniform rectilinear motion unless acted upon by a force is
called inertia'
Mass of any body is the measure of inertia .For example if we apply equal amount of force on two objects of different mass (say m1 and
m2 such that m1 > m2 ) then acceleration of both the object would be different (i.e , a1 < a2 )
Acceleration of object having larger mass would be lesser then the acceleration of object having smaller mass
Thus larger the mass of the body ,smaller would be the acceleration and larger would be the inertia
Newton's first law of motion revealing this fundamental property of matter i.e inertia is also known as law of inertia
