A bird sitting on the limb of a tree is moving about 30 km/s with respect to the Sun. If the bird takes 1 second to drop down to a worm below, the worm would be 30 km downrange from the bird when it reached the ground. This faulty reasoning is best countered with Newton's
A)law of inertia.
B)law of gravity.
C)laws of motion.
D)none of the above

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Newton's law of inertia (the first law of motion) explains that an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. In this scenario, both the bird and the worm are moving at the same speed relative to the Sun due to the Earth's rotation, so the bird would not find the worm 30 km downrange when it drops.

A Bird Sitting on the Limb of a Tree Is