Practice Inertia in Physics

Use these practice problems to test your method after reviewing the concept explanation and worked examples.

Quick Recap

The intrinsic tendency of an object to resist any change in its state of motion, whether at rest or moving.

Heavy things are stubborn—hard to start moving, hard to stop.

Example 1

easy
A 2 \text{ kg} book and a 10 \text{ kg} box are both at rest on a frictionless table. The same force of 5 \text{ N} is applied to each. Which object is harder to accelerate, and what is each object's acceleration?

Example 2

medium
A passenger in a car is not wearing a seatbelt. The car, traveling at 15 \text{ m/s}, suddenly stops in 0.3 \text{ s}. What happens to the passenger (mass 70 \text{ kg}) and what force would be needed to decelerate them at the same rate?

Example 3

medium
A hockey puck (0.17 \text{ kg}) slides on frictionless ice at 25 \text{ m/s}. A bowling ball (6 \text{ kg}) rolls at 3 \text{ m/s}. Which object has more inertia, and which is harder to stop?

Example 4

hard
An empty shopping cart (15 \text{ kg}) and a full one (60 \text{ kg}) are both pushed from rest with 40 \text{ N} for 2 \text{ s}. What is the final speed of each? How does this illustrate inertia?
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