This week we began a new unit and learned about inertia, and the difference between mass and weight. Inertia is the tendency for an object to continue to do what it's already doing. So if it is a basketball just sitting there on the court, it's going to stay like that until someone picks it up and shoots it. Since a force was applied to the ball it would move in the direction that it was thrown if we did not have gravity and the air making it stop its motion. This is inertia. The difference between mass and weight is that weight is the gravitys effect on our mass. We would have the same mass if we were on a different planet but not the same weight.
I know that we watched a movie that showed us how inertia worked. They used a rock and they taught us how the heavier the object the more force is needed to move it. They also showed how while the rock is traveling through the air it is repeatedly having to break through air barriers that eventually slow it down enough to stop it. This little clip also showed us that if the rock were kicked in space, there is nothing that is stopping it so it would stay at the same rate of movement that it was kicked with.
This movie really helped me understand what inertia was because I didn't really get it when it was first explained to me but having a visual to go along with the explanation really helped me learn it.
This is what I remember from this week. The beginning of the week is a little hazy because of the excitement of spirit week but the most important part was that we learned some new material for a new unit.
I don't really have any questions about inertia, mass or weight because I get what they are. I think that I still need to learn more about the forces acting on an object for the test but other than that I think I get all of the material pretty well.
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