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Originally Posted by modest
I've never really understood inertia.
If mass is a measure of inertia (more massive objects have more resistance to change in motion) then wouldn't zero inertia mean zero mass? If that's the case then perhaps the speed of something with no inertia would have to be like light—always c. But, then again, light does have some inertia, doesn't it? It imparts some energy to the thing which propels it or stops it.
~modest
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It's always confused me too and I think I finally found out why. This wiki paragraph sums it up nicely.
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In common usage, however, people may also use the term "inertia" to refer to an object's "amount of resistance to change in velocity" (which is quantified by its mass), or sometimes to its momentum, depending on the context (e.g. "this object has a lot of inertia"). The term "inertia" is more properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his First Law of Motion. This law, expressed simply, says that an object that is not subject to any net external force moves at a constant velocity. In even simpler terms, inertia means that an object will always continue moving at its current speed and in its current direction until some force causes its speed or direction to change. This would include an object that is not in motion (speed = zero), which will remain at rest until some force causes it to move.
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So, this is yet another scientific term that has a common use as well.
According to the scientific definition, an inertialess superhero could travel with a velocity anywhere between zero and c (depending on the forces present).
This makes our superhero quite unlucky as pointed out already. Though I suppose we could put him or her to work as a neutrino detector technician at the bottom of some old mine shaft.
I guess you'd still have to pad the room though...
Wait...What would happen to your body? Wouldn't you become instantly cratered and amorphous with all those high speed particles knocking around you?
