Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Isaac Newton's
First Law of Motion defines inertia: An object in motion wants to stay in
motion, and an object at rest wants to stay at rest.
OK, now what does that mean?
Imagine you have a toy car. It's sitting
on the floor in front of you. You want the car to move, but it isn't going
to unless some force, like your finger, gives it a push. The car is at
rest and, unless a force like a push or a pull acts on it, it's going to
stay at rest. Simple, right? Now here comes the tricky part.
Once you give the car a push, it is in
motion. And guess what? It wants to stay in motion. But we all know that
the toy car will eventually slow down and stop. Why? Because a force
called friction is slowing it down. Friction happens when things rub
against each other, and it slows down things in motion. The toy car's
tires rub against the floor, causing the friction that slows it down. Even
the air the car moves through creates friction.
The best place to test inertia is outer
space. In outer space there is no air, or anything else to create
friction. So moving objects will keep moving forever, and objects that
aren't moving will stand still forever.