Literary notes about inertia (AI summary)
The term “inertia” in literature spans a broad terrain, from a strictly scientific property to a metaphor for stubborn adherence to tradition and resistant behavior in society and the self. Authors invoke its literal sense—as seen in discussions of bodies resisting change or calculations of rotational force ([1], [2], [3])—while simultaneously using it to capture the weight of convention, the persistence of habit, and even the lethargy of the human spirit ([4], [5], [6]). In this way, “inertia” becomes a versatile concept, symbolizing both the fixed nature of physical law and the enduring force of custom and psychological habit that shapes personal and collective life ([7], [8], [9]).
- Inertia is that property of bodies by virtue of which it cannot change its own condition of rest or motion.
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain - How to calculate the moment of inertia of a body in relation to a straight line, when the moment in relation to a parallel straight line is known.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The angular acceleration is equal to the sum of the moments of the exterior forces divided by the moment of inertia about the axis of rotation.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Most architects still hold to the old-fashioned drawing boards supported upon trestles, and mostly from the simple inertia of custom.
— from The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, Vol. 01, No. 06, June 1895 Renaissance Panels from Perugia by Various - This inertia, which physics registers in the first law of motion, natural history and psychology call habit.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - I don't know how to express it, but life goes on, as it were, by inertia.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The main social force governing all tribal life could be described as the inertia of custom, the love of uniformity of behaviour.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski - Moreover, the methods used for effective teaching of the languages were well developed; the inertia of academic custom was on their side.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - Government is the political representative of a natural equilibrium, of custom, of inertia; it is by no means a representative of reason.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
