what has more inertia?a basketball sitting on the floor or a basketball which has just been shot at
You SHOOT a basketball; you don't shoot AT it.
Inertia is another word for mass. It is a measure of the resistance to acceleration. Mass does not depend upon velocity.
The inertia is the same in both cases, since the mass is the same.
To determine which basketball has more inertia, we need to understand what inertia is. Inertia is the resistance an object has to changes in its state of motion. An object with more mass generally has more inertia.
If we compare a basketball sitting on the floor to a basketball that has just been shot, the basketball that has just been shot will have more inertia.
To explain why, let's break it down step by step:
1. When the basketball is sitting on the floor, it is at rest, and its motion is stationary. It has its initial, or starting, inertia.
2. When the basketball is shot, it gains some velocity and starts moving. As it moves, its inertia increases because it now has both mass and motion.
3. The basketball's additional motion adds to its inertia. The faster the basketball is shot, the greater its inertia will be because its velocity is higher.
In this comparison, the basketball that has just been shot has more inertia because it has both mass and motion, while the basketball sitting on the floor only has mass and no motion.
Remember, inertia depends on the mass of an object and its state of motion.