Question

Which of the following best describe about the statement “An object slides on a horizontal, frictionless surface”
(A) Inertia
(B) Unbalanced forces
(C) Action and reaction force pairs
(D) Universal gravitation
(E) Simple harmonic motion

Answer 1

Hint: Here we consider an object sliding on a horizontal, frictionless surface. Force is the entity that changes or tries to change the state of rest or the state of uniform linear motion. For an object sliding on a surface if no external force is applied, the only possible force is frictional force. Here the surface is said to be frictionless.

Complete step by step solution:
If the net external force acting on a body is zero, an object at rest will continue to be at the state of rest and an object in uniform motion will continue to move with a uniform velocity. This inability of a body to change its state of rest or the state of uniform linear motion by itself is known as inertia. Inertia means the resistance of a body to vary its states. Here the object is sliding on a horizontal plane without friction. In the absence of any other external force, if friction is also not present then the body will continue to slide with uniform velocity. This property is known as the inertia of the body. Therefore we can say that the statement is best described by inertia.

Note:
Newton’s first law gives us an idea about the force and inertia. Inertia is further classified into the inertia of rest and inertia of motion. If a body, in the absence of an external force, continues to rest then the inertia possessed by the object is the inertia of rest. If a body continues to move with uniform velocity in the absence of a force, then the inertia of that body is the inertia of motion.