Understanding Inertia: What Happens to the Coffee Mug in the Car?
Question:
The teacher drives the car in a straight line and then stops suddenly. What happens to the coffee mug when the car stops?
A. The mug moves forward.
B. The mug moves backward.
C. The mug moves side to side.
D. The mug stays in the same position.
Final answer: The coffee mug moves forward when the car stops due to its inertia.
Answer:
When the car stops suddenly, the coffee mug tends to continue moving due to inertia. Inertia is the tendency of an object to resist changes in its state of motion. In this case, the mug moves forward because it wants to keep moving in the same direction as the car was moving before it stopped abruptly.
This phenomenon can be explained using 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.
Therefore, the correct answer is A. The mug moves forward when the car stops. It moves forward due to its inertia.
Understanding inertia is important in physics as it helps explain why objects behave the way they do when in motion or at rest. In this scenario, the coffee mug's inertia causes it to move forward when the car stops abruptly.