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Lesson: Chapter 4 — Newton's Laws of Motion

Newton's first law 6 of 7

Question 6

The first law says moving objects should keep moving. Yet in daily life we see moving things come to a stop. Why?

The right answer is the one marked above.

Because a force such as friction or air resistance is acting on them. Such a force is an external unbalanced force — so the law does not break.

Behind every "it stopped by itself" we meet in daily life, a force like this is hiding. Not seeing it is no evidence that it is absent.

Moving objects have no "natural tendency to stop". People before Newton believed they did, and correcting that is precisely what makes this law important.

Answer the question to continue.