Inertia
 

Please Sir, Can I have some, more ?

What is Inertia ?

and what bodies can be described as Inertial ?

Wiki is your friend Zarkov

what do you think it is? and what bodies do you think can be described thus?

There is Newton's definition.....

however nothing in the Universe is stationary... all is moving

so bring it back to local

bodies at rest stay at rest .... or motion, stay moving... unless..

then there is

Inertia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion.

a little history
Newton's conception of inertia stood in direct opposition to more popular conceptions about motion. The dominant thought prior to Newton's day was that it was the natural tendency of objects to come to a rest position. Moving objects, so it was believed, would eventually stop moving; a force was necessary to keep an object moving. All objects resist changes in their state of motion. All objects have this tendency - they have inertia. But do some objects have more of a tendency to resist changes than others? Absolutely yes! The tendency of an object to resist changes in its state of motion varies with mass. Mass is that quantity that is solely dependent upon the inertia of an object. The more inertia that an object has, the more mass that it has. A more massive object has a greater tendency to resist changes in its state of motion. http://www.physicsclassroom.com/clas...laws/u2l1b.cfm

Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. Pretty much as we learned it in high school 50 years ago, except it was split into inertia for things at rest and momentum for things on the move.

do you want a definition of a word, or a description of an action?

yes
what objects can be said to be inertial ?

spinning tops... that vase on the table....... the Earth in motion

a body falling to earth......

Is movement via a rocket inertial ?

Can bodies be moved inertially ?

do you mean what is an inertial frame of reference?

you would have to say that all natural non-lifeform motion is inertial wouldn't you?

Umm, not unless you felt obliged to say something that wasn't true.

(Unless you have a peculiar definition of "lifeform")

you would have to say that all natural non-lifeform motion is inertial wouldn't you? yes

what is an inertial frame of reference? That would be nice as well

Other definitions are... object constrained by balanced forces stay thus..... that's a bit trite IMO

(Unless you have a peculiar definition of "lifeform") any motion not initiated by intent

however is a rock blasted from a volcano, inertial ?

inertia is the rest energy of the particle. it will stop the top spinning and keep the vase where it is until acted on. a falling body is said to be in a non-inertial FoR.

There appears to many definitions

I am wondering what a lay person would think one definition better than another
or it is all just too confusing

Is Inertia a confused concept ??

yes and no

Really, I would say the inertia is a very well defined concept... Which definition do you think unclear?

Well is Inertia a resistance, a constrained state or friction

Neither and yet all Zarkov.

Yes, no and no.

It's a property of bodies, not a state, and I don't know why you would think it might be friction.