Is it to do with the atomic structure or something similar, or am I completely along the wrong lines?
In: 4
Ok so lets start with motion itself. A point like object can move in very different ways. It can move at a steady speed in a straight line it can accelerate and move in a circle. So far every object behaves the same way.
What happens when we introduce another object and they interact. We define a constant that codes a property of an object, how it behaves during interactions. We use the letter m to mark this amount and call it mass.
Mass determines how much effort you have to put in to chage the object’s motion. F/m = a. If you apply some force the mass will determine how much the object will accelerate. Everything with mass resists changes in motion. Well its more like in order to do something you have to apply a force which means you have to do work. If energy is conserved things can only change their motion if something makes them. With more massive objects you have to put in more work to move them.
An other way of looking at it is through Newton’s third law. You kick a ball and the ball kicks you. Why did the ball move while you didnt? Because the same amount of force changes the ball’s motion a lot more than yours.
Asking why does inertia exists is like asking why mechanical energy is conserved. These are useful concepts and they all based on experiments. Inertia defines how an object behaves during interactions.
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