Written by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 examโขWritten by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Definition
Newton's laws of motion are three fundamental principles that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting upon it. They provide a framework for understanding how objects move and interact with each other.
Inertia is an object's resistance to changes in its state of motion. It describes how objects tend to keep doing what they're already doing unless acted upon by an external force.