Laws of Motion - SS1 Physics Past Questions and Answers - page 2

Inertia is the property of an object to resist changes in its state of motion. It is related to Newton's first law of motion, also known as the law of inertia. According to this law, an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an external force.

Mass and weight are two distinct concepts in physics, Mass is a measure of the amount of matter present in an object. It is a scalar quantity and is measured in kilograms (kg). Mass remains constant regardless of the location of the object or the presence of a gravitational field. In other words, an object's mass remains the same whether it is on Earth, on the Moon, or in space. Mass is an intrinsic property of an object and provides a measure of its inertia, as discussed in the previous essay question.

Weight, on the other hand, is the force exerted on an object due to gravity. It is a vector quantity and is measured in newtons (N). Weight depends on the mass of an object and the gravitational field strength at its location. The weight of an object can vary depending on the strength of the gravitational field. For example, an object that weighs 100 N on Earth would weigh only about 16.6 N on the Moon due to the Moon's weaker gravitational pull.