Newton's First Law of Motion
This topic covers Newton's First Law of Motion
The Main Idea
Newton's First law states that an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and direction unless acted upon by unbalanced force.
This is also known as the "Law of Inertia"
A Mathematical Model
The quantification of this law is done by quantifying the amount of interaction, or the Force. For an object to have uniform motion it can either have zero forces acting on it or the forces may cancel each other out. If there is a force acting on an object to the right, and a simultaneous and equal magnitude force acting on it to the left, then the object will have uniform motion. This means the object will stay in motion with the same speed and direction. But, if there is an unbalanced force acting on an object, then the speed and/or direction of the object will change.
Examples
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History
This theory was originally discovered by Galileo who conducted experiments on the concepts of inertia and acceleration due to gravity. Galileo studied the movement of balls on smooth and rough surfaces, developing the idea of friction. Isaac Newton further studied these concepts and ideas and presented his 3 Laws of Motion. The first of these 3 laws, as we know, stated that an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and direction until an unbalanced force acts on it. And with the absence of friction or other forces, an object will continue moving forever.
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Further reading
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External links
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References
https://thescienceclassroom.wikispaces.com/Newton's+First+Law+of+Motion Matter and Interactions: Modern Mechanics. Volume One. 4th Edition.