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. Explain what’s happening using one of Newton’s Laws of Motion
According to Newton's First Law of Motion, an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force. In this case, the external force is the increasing amount of trash that James is carrying compared to Heidi. As James begins to lag behind, his inertia, or resistance to change in motion, is causing him to slow down. This demonstrates Newton's First Law in action as James would continue walking at the same speed as Heidi if there were no external forces acting on him.
