eli5. What does inertia mean?
In: Physics
Physics-wise.
The first law of physics says that an object in space will keep its motion unless another force acts on it.
If you apply force to an object in space (i.e. throw a rock in the air) it will **theoretically** keep moving in the direction you threw it because of inertia – this means that you are not applying any more force to the rock, but the rock keeps moving in that direction indefinitely.
Obviously in real life, on Earth, there are other forces acting on the rock, so eventually the rock will start slowing down, and then fall towards the ground and stop.
Edit: spelling
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