Heidi and James are carrying loads of trash to the dump. They are walking down the sidewalk, side by side but James begins to lag behind Heidi. Explain what's happening using one of Newton's Laws of Motion.
This situation can be explained using Newton's First Law of Motion, which states that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force. In this case, since Heidi and James are both carrying loads of trash, they are both exerting a force to walk forward. However, James begins to lag behind Heidi because he is experiencing more friction or resistance from his load of trash, causing him to slow down and fall behind. This demonstrates the concept of inertia, where an object will continue to move at a constant speed unless an external force acts upon it.
