what is the tendency of an object to remain at rest or to remain in motion

inertia

The tendency of an object to remain at rest or to remain in motion is called inertia.

To understand inertia, you can consider Newton's First Law of Motion, also known as the law of inertia, which states that an object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an external force.

In order to determine the tendency of an object to remain at rest or to remain in motion, you can analyze the forces acting on it. If there is no net external force acting on an object, it will maintain its current state of motion (either at rest or in motion).

For instance, if you have a ball on a table, and there are no forces pushing or pulling on it, the ball will stay at rest. However, if you give it a push, it will continue moving until another force acts upon it, such as friction or gravity.

In summary, inertia is the property of an object that determines whether it will remain at rest or continue moving. The object's inertia is determined by the balance of external forces acting upon it.