first law of motion
1
4.1
- noun
- /fɜrst lɔː ʌv ˈmoʊʃən/
- Specialized
:
primera ley del movimiento
- The principle outlined in Newton's first law of motion indicates that a stationary object won't move unless force is applied.
- Newton's first law of motion
Examples
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Here, Lonergan was drawing an analogy between the task of social theory and Newton's first law of motion.
Academic text (2006) -
Newton's first law of motion explains that an object moving in a straight line will continue to move in that direction unless acted upon by a force.
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Newton's first law of motion.
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Newton's three laws of motion, the first law of motion says that objects in motion stay in motion forever unless acted on by an outside force.
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The third is Newton's first law of motion: every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
Academic text (2012) -
So what we have is a particle with a huge (sufficiently large) mass moving with uniform speed in a straight line that experiences a net finite non-zero force, which is directly contradictory to Newton's first law of motion. Therefore, we see that Newtonian mechanics is self-contradictory.
Blog text (20) -
According to Newton's first law of motion, an object will remain at rest unless influenced by an external force.
Synonyms
1
4.1
An object stays still or keeps moving at the same speed and direction unless a force acts on it
An object stays still or keeps moving in the same straight line unless a force acts on it
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase transparently combines 'first' (primary), 'law' (a general rule), and 'motion' (movement), so a learner who knows the words can infer it refers to the primary scientific rule about movement. However, the precise content of Newton's first law (the specific principle of inertia) is specialist knowledge not deducible from the constituents alone, so the term is only partially transparent.
Etymology
First law of motion is easiest to see with a toy car: the car will not move until you push it, and it will keep moving the same way until something stops it. So the law means that objects 'stay still or keep moving' unless something from outside makes them change.