Imagine that you are in a space station in the vacuum of outer space, far from any planet. There is no air in space, so there is
no friction. There is also very little gravity. You throw a ball out the door of the space station. Use Newton's first law of motion to predict what will happen to the motion of the ball.
The ball will continue to move at a constant speed forever until another force stops it.
Explanation:
Newton's first law of motion can be seen as a law of inertia. It explains that an object at rest or in a state of uniform motion will remain in that state unless it is acted upon by an external force.
Following the above, when the ball is thrown into space, the ball will continue to move with the velocity with which it was thrown until it comes in contact with another object that stops it. If this does not happen, it will continue to drift forever at that velocity.
Assuming it starts at 72 kmph and hits a dead stop: Divide 72 by 60 for distance per minute. So, 1.2km per minute. 1.2km is 1200m and 4 seconds is one fifteenth of a minute.
