Question

Consider the situations below. Which of these is the best example of Newton's 1st Law (inertia) A bird takes flight from the ground. Tom uses a cane to walk across the road. You go down a steep hill in a sled and if feels like your stomach is going into your throat. A tennis player throws the tennis ball into the air for a serve and the ball falls to the ground.

Answer 1

The best example of Newton's 1st Law of Motion (inertia) from the situations you provided is:

A tennis player throws the tennis ball into the air for a serve and the ball falls to the ground.

This situation exemplifies inertia because the ball remains at rest until acted upon by the force of the player's throw, and then it continues to move upward until gravity pulls it back down, illustrating that an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an external force. The other situations involve changes in motion due to forces being applied, which do not illustrate inertia as directly as the behavior of the tennis ball does.