What is Inertia?
A SUBJECT MATTER long clouded in mystery and vaguely addressed in most aircraft operator’s manuals is the phenomena known as inertia. How does inertia apply to helicopter rotor systems? Most helicopter pilots are fairly certain whether the main rotor is designated as a high or low inertia system. They usually get it correct during their annual evaluation, especially when give two guesses! But how can a better understanding of inertia contribute to increasing the population of old, gray-haired aviators? First of all, we can plagiarize “Webster” and rigorously define inertia as “an object’s resistance to changes in motion.” But what determines the amount of inertia in a system? An object’s inertia is determined by the distribution of its mass about its center of rotation. For example, if we take a sword and swing it around in a circle, as depicted in the title graphic, its is relatively easy to get started and very easy to stop. This is a low inertia system. Conversely, if we now take a
Inertia is the idea that an object keeps moving unless acted upon by an outside force. Much of the initial work written about inertia was done by Isaac Newton in the 17th century and became known as his first law of physics. It is one of the basic principles of physics and has a number of real-life applications, as it helps to explain much of why objects behave the way they do. The idea of inertia is quite simple. Inertia is the principle that is that an object will tend to keep moving at a certain speed and direction unless something else acts to change it. That external force could be almost anything. Friction is a common external force that can change the speed and direction of a moving object. Many other objects can also affect motion, however, from gravity of the earth’s pull to another person. The key idea is that an object will keep moving (or stay still) unless something else influences it otherwise. Inertia helps to justify why many objects act in certain ways. For example, in
Inertia is a word we use when we talk about matter and movement. Basically, our idea of inertia goes back to Sir Issac Newton’s first two laws of physics: 1. An object at rest tends to stay at rest. 2. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. Inertia is the quality in matter (matter is anything you can touch) that lets it stay still if it is still, or keeps it moving if it is moving. If you want to overcome inertia, you have to apply a force. A force will make something that is still start to move, like flicking a wad of paper with a pencil will make it move. Also force, due to resistance, will slow or stop something that is already moving. The wad of paper will be slowed by resistance made by rubbing up against the air it is passing through.
Inertia is the tendency of objects that are at rest to remain at rest, or of moving objects to continue moving, unless they are acted upon by some outside force. This concept of physics was discovered by the Italian scientist Galileo in the 16th century. Because of the property of inertia, an object set on top of a table can be
The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental laws of classical physics which are used to describe the motion of matter and how it is affected by applied forces. Inertia is the property of an object to remain constant in velocity unless acted upon by an outside force. Inertia is dependent upon the mass and shape of the object.
