Question

Inertia of a body has direct dependence on:
A. Velocity
B. Mass
C. Area
D. Volume

Answer 1

Hint:: Inertia of a body is its tendency to resist any change in the current state of the body. The body can be at rest or in uniform motion. A heavy object is believed to have more inertia and thus it is difficult to move as compared to lighter objects which have less inertia.

Complete answer:
 Let us first understand what inertia is and how it affects motion. Inertia of a body is the tendency to resist any change. Every particle in the universe has the tendency to be at rest or in the state of motion unless any external force is applied to it. Please note that the force applied must be unbalanced, the resultant net force must not cancel out each other to zero. If there is some resultant force then the body will have some acceleration or there will be change in the mass of the body.

Suppose there are two bodies of different masses and the same force is applied to both the bodies. The body having more mass will have less acceleration than the body having relatively less mass. This is how mass provides the tendency to resist the change in its state. For example, it becomes difficult to move a heavy object as compared to an object with lesser mass. As the lighter body has less mass, it has lower tendency to resist the change.

Thus, we can conclude that inertia of a body depends on mass. Option B is the correct option.

Note:Don’t confuse between mass and inertia, they may seem similar but they are different. Inertia and mass are related to each other. More the mass, more will be its inertia. Remember that inertia is the tendency of the body to resist any change due to an unbalanced external force.