Question

While dusting a carpet, we give it a sudden jerk or beat it with a stick because:
A. the inertia of rest keeps the dust in its position and the dust is removed when the carpet moves away
B. the inertia of motion removes dust
C. no inertia involved in process
D. jerk compensates for the force of adhesion between dust and carpet and dust is removed

Answer 1

Hint: There are two types of inertia defined by Newton’s first law of motion. Inertia of rest is the tendency of a body to remain at rest unless an external force is applied on it. Inertia of motion is the tendency of a body to stay in state of uniform motion unless an external force acts on the body.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Newton’s first law of motion gave the concept of inertia. According to this law, a body at rest or in a state of uniform motion continues to remain in that state as long as an external force does not act on it changing its state of motion.
Based on this law there are two types of inertia: Inertia of rest and Inertia of motion.
Inertia of rest is the property of a body to stay in the state of rest unless an external force acts on the body. Inertia of motion is the property of a body in uniform motion to stay in the state of uniform motion unless an external force acts on the body.
Now when dusting a carpet, we give it a sudden jerk or beat it to remove dust from it. The dust on the carpet is in the state of rest possessing certain inertia of rest. When the carpet is given a sudden then the carpet is set into motion while the dust particles tend to stay at rest at their original position because of inertia of rest. As a result, the dust gets separated from the carpet.
Therefore, while dusting a carpet, we give it a sudden jerk or beat it with a stick because the inertia of rest keeps the dust in its position and the dust is removed when the carpet moves away. Hence, the correct answer is option A.

So, the correct answer is “Option A”.

Note: The inertia comes into action due to the mass of a body. Greater the mass of a body, greater is the inertia that it possesses. In rotational motion, we encounter a moment of inertia which is the tendency of the body to oppose the motion about an axis due to the distribution of mass in the body.