Newton's First Law: Application

Experience suggests that an object at rest remains at rest if left alone, and that an object in motion tends to slow down and stop unless some effort is made to keep it moving. However, Newton's first law gives a deeper explanation of this observation. The study of Newton's laws is like recognizing patterns in nature from which further patterns ...

Newton's first law states that an external force is required for any change in the object's state of motion.

To understand this better, consider a ball at rest. The forces acting on it are the gravitational and the normal force that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. Hence, the net force is balanced.

If, however, the...