INERTIA • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Inertia

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/ɪnˈərʃə/ Listen

noun

Inertia n.

(Physics) That property of matter by which it tends when at rest to remain so, and when in motion to continue in motion, and in the same straight line or direction, unless acted on by some external force; sometimes called vis inertiae. The inertia of a body is proportional to its mass.

Inertness; indisposition to motion, exertion, or action; lack of energy; sluggishness. "Men... have immense irresolution and inertia."

(Med.) Lack of activity; sluggishness; said especially of the uterus, when, in labor, its contractions have nearly or wholly ceased.

Center of inertia. (Mech.) See under Center.

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Etymology of 'Inertia'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Inertia" Quotes from Famous Books

... continue in a state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line unless acted on by some external force; for though this law was affirmed of material bodies, yet its applicability to large groups of men is striking and suggestive. Not only do human beings have the physical attributes of weight and inertia like other material bodies, but their mental organism, while of a higher order than the physical, is as powerfully affected by external forces. And though it is true that psychology has not yet secured her Newton, and that no one has yet ...

— The Navy as a Fighting Machine • Bradley A. Fiske

... the impulse of some strong desire that should carry you over the threshold of that first inertia into the wide field of reserve energy so rarely called upon and so ...

— Initiative Psychic Energy • Warren Hilton

... cases of "twilight sleep" that are not under the influence of scopolamin over five or six hours do vastly better than those under a longer time. When employed too long before labor this method seems to favor inertia and thus tends to increase the ...

— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler

... instantaneous axis travels in a closed curve, and returns to its original position in the body. 2ndly. That by working the vertical bolts, we can make the axis of the instrument the centre of this closed curve. It will then be one of the principal axes of inertia. 3rdly. That, by working the nut on the axis, we can make the order of colours either red, yellow, green, blue, or the reverse. When the order of colours is in the same direction as the rotation, it ...

— Five of Maxwell's Papers • James Clerk Maxwell

... themselves, moral problems arise where none were felt before. Men learn that they have not made the most of their opportunities or lived the best possible lives; they have veered this way and that according to the moment's impulse, they have been misled by ingrained habits and paralyzed by inertia, they have wandered at random for lack of a clear vision of their goal. The task of the moralist is to attain such a clear vision; to understand, first, the basis of all preference, and then, in detail, the reasons for preferring this ...

— Problems of Conduct • Durant Drake

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