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how do you do ladies and gentlemen I am
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Julius sna Miller and physics is my
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business and I should say how do you do
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ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls
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I am Julia sna Miller and physics is my
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business and I'll special business today
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is the subject of inertia and I must
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make the matter the idea clear as
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follows here we have a block of wood at
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rest on the tabletop and I ask what does
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that block want to do answer the block
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wishes to remain at rest supposing now I
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have double as much block and I try in
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turn to put that system in motion what
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do I discover it also wishes to remain
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at rest moreover it wishes to remain at
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rest twice as much and therefore we say
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its inertia is twice as great and so you
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discover at once that I have used the
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term inertia and referred to the idea of
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mass as synonymous so mass and inertia
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are synonymous and this is all tied up
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beautifully in Newton's first law which
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says what if a body is at rest it wishes
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to remain at rest and if it is moving
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uniformly in a straight line that's what
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it wants to do in English simply
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whatever a body is doing that's what it
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wants to do let's look at Newton's Latin
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for it Newton put it in Latin axata sewa
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legus motus axioms even laws Laws of
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Motion Corpus Omni persa inst to suo
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quendi and so on and in English a little
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more within our compet
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everybody continues in its state of rest
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or of uniform motion in a straight line
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unless there are some forces to divert
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it consider now the
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following here you come on April Fool's
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Day let us say on a package on two
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packages resting on the ground here is
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one and here is another and you deliver
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you impose a force on the one I will
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instead of with my foot with my hand and
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it experienced such a motion the force
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produced a motion in the body of so much
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inertia now I try it with this
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one hardly as much motion why this one
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is filled with rags and this one with
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two bricks and this one has the greater
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inertia so the measure of the mass of a
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body is its inertia consider now the two
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aspects of Newton's first law
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a body at rest wishes to remain so here
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I have a heavy block of wood a hole in
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it and I put a dow rod in the hole the
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Dow Rod constitutes the
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handle how can I put that handle into
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the block as follows as follows notice
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what happens I hit the handle the block
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remains at rest whereupon the handle
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moves into the block that's the first
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law the body of large inertia wishes to
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remain at rest let me pursue this in
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another way to demonstrate the second
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part of Newton's law what did the second
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part
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say if the body is in uniform motion in
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a straight line that's what it wants to
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do I start
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again now I come down on a firm block
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the motion of the handle is
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arrested the handle and the block were
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moving and what does the block want to
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do keep moving
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whereupon it lodges itself more firmly
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on the handle thus do we demonstrate
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Newton's first law in two
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parts let me do this another way very
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pretty very pretty I have a
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support and a weight w supported by a
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string and another string with a loop in
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it here which I shall show you let me
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call this string a and this string
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B I propose to do as
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follows I'm going to pull on string B
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the lower
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string and I can break either string b
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or string a by invoking Newton's first
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law if I pull suddenly on string b w
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wishes to remain at rest and B will
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break on the other hand if I pull gently
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on B A supports W already there plus the
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force I impose and I shall show you that
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exactly with this
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demonstration here is a
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string here is a hook here is a weight
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and the upper string is supporting the
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load here is the lower string and I am
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putting a little Rod inside here so that
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my hand is Not underneath should the
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weight fall I am going to break the
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lower string watch it now the lower one
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there it is I broke it now I am going to
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change the
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string I'm going to change the
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string and now I'm going to break the
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upper string by pulling slowly on the
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lower one watch it now watch we hope
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that breaks now supposing it does
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not one is led to say the experiment has
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failed and I say no the experiment
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doesn't fail fail I have failed to meet
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the requirements of nature watch I'm
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going to break the upper string there it
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is and so we can be applauded for
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Success consider another demonstration
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of the same here is an enormous weight
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16bs here is a string attached to
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it if I pull on that string in a gentle
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way I'll do it by hand in a gentle way
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uhuh the Str can support the load now
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let me try to accelerate it what does
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Newton's first law say body wants to
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remain at rest it has enormous inertia
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watch it do you see the string has
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broken I shall have more to say about
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this when I talk about Newton Second Law
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the second law consider now another
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dramatic
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demonstration an application of Newton's
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first law because we must not escape the
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fact that these laws of physics of
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nature of science have vast applications
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in plean things a brick a Trel can not
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the Craftsman the brick layer utilize
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Newton's first law in this way notice if
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he hit his hand with the TR he'd hurt it
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but he can hit the Breck with absolute
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abandon and feel nothing inertia of the
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break here is another classic which I
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like to know because it it is so
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dramatic a sheet of
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paper about 20 in by 30 20 in by 30 600
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square in the load on each square inch
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is roughly 15 PB atmospheric pressure at
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sea level therefore about 9,000 lbs of
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air on that paper that's enormous
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inertia proof here is a board quarter
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inch thick I put the board under here
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and now I am going to try to put that
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enormous mass of air into motion by a
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sudden impulsive blow on this end of the
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stick the impulsive view that people
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have is oh the whole thing will catapult
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no it will not because that mass of air
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is at rest and Newton said it wishes to
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remain so watch
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it it did not
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move it did not move
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fantastic now
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remember ladies and gentlemen and boys
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and girls when I refer to this block
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being at rest and then I say what does
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it want to do and the answer is it wants
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to remain at rest I would not have you
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dispose of this as trivia because it
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took the genius of an Isaac Newton to
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establish it nothing trivial about it
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consider another dramatic demonstration
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oh this one is a here is a vessel of
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water and it has quite some inertia and
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I put it on these this paper and I move
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it slowly
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slowly remember this has large inertia
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it wants to remain at rest and I am not
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trying to accelerate it to rapidly and
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thereby friction forces hold it onto the
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paper and so I pull more and more and
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more and more uhoh we're in a little
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trouble because friction isn't right for
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me but anyone in his right mind must
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testify to the prospect if I continue in
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the manner I have been doing the whole
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thing will fall down but if I invoke the
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laws of Newton the first law which says
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it wants to remain at rest and will
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refuse to be moved by short lived
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impulsive forces watch
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it are you not surprised that it stayed
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there
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consider another more
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application here is a vehicle and here
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is a body standing upright in the
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vehicle and now I want to show you that
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if I move the vehicle the body is at
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rest with respect to it and what does it
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want to do it wants to stay there watch
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it and so it did and that's why when you
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accelerate a car rapidly from a
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standstill your head is jerked back
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because of the large inertia of the head
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on the other hand if the car is moving
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moving
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uniformly if I now suddenly arrest its
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motion what will the block do well the
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block was going straight and that's what
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it wants to do oh notice I accelerated
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too fast the first
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way there it is and the block tip
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forward a quick one for your inquiry
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here I have two vessels and remember the
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subject is
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inertia they each contain one pint and
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let us say that one is filled with cream
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and the other with milk so I have a pint
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of milk and a pint of cream quickly
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quickly which has the greater inertia
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that's equivalent to asking which has
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the greater mass that's equivalent to
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asking which has the greater weight and
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some are led to say oh the cream the
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cream of course because it's thick and
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sluggish and viscous oh no no no mistake
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the milk has the greater inertia for
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reasons of course you see clearly
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yourself the Pine of milk weighs more
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than the pint of cream another
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demonstration of the inertia again here
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is a stack of coins they happen to be
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Australian pennies why because they have
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larger inertia than us pennies and now
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what can I do with a thin blade I can
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deliver a sharp impulsive blow to the
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lowermost one and what do I hope to see
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I hope to see the whole stack remain
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unmoved why because it it's at rest and
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wants to stay say there it is there it
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is there it is and I just love that
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demonstration why because it is a
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classic revealing the beauty and
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strength and simplicity in a sense of
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Newton's first
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law I want to show one
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more remember what the second part of
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the law said I would urge you never to
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forget that the first law has two parts
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which are rarely ever properly separated
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I said a body moving in a straight
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line wishes to continue so here is a
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ball swinging in a vertical plane in a
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vertical Circle I would remind you I
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would remind you that at the instant in
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question when the ball is right there on
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the end of the string its motion is
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tangent to the path at that place and if
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I should cut the string or let go of it
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the ball would not go radially outward
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but would go instantaneously in a
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direction tangent
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so this introduces here in a passing way
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the idea of centrifugal force which is a
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nasty thing to handle and often much is
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said that is wrong but if I let go of
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the string at the top where will the
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ball go tangent watch
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it there it is tangent now it is proper
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before we conclude a program on Isaac
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Newton to show you one of many
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photographs of
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Newton a very important place this man
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occupies in the history of
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humankind and I would hope that when you
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go to London sometime you will most
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certainly go to Westminster Abbey and
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see where he is buried and what does it
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say on that beautiful Epitaph among
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other
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things let men Rejoice that so great a
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one
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has
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existed so we are coming shortly to the
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end of the program one final enchanting
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thing an array of cups if I put this
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heavy block on them
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gently I can drive this Spike into that
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block without the cups feeling anything
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why why because the black the block has
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enormous inertia if on the other hand I
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drop it it's going and it want to keep
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going there it is and thus I conclude
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ladies and gentlemen a program on
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inertia and I thank you for your
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attention
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