Can solid/gas objecs have an inertia?

Question

I know that when you spin an unboiled egg on a plate and put a finger on it to stop it, it will start spinning again if you let go of it. This is as the liquid inside it is still spinning. It rubs against the sides of the eggshell and causes it to spin again. I doubt this is possible with solid objects as nothing is moving inside them, but is the effect possible for objects with gas inside them, and could the effect be possible for plasma filled objects.

Answer 1

Solid objects: easy to prove. Hard-boil that same egg and spin it, then stop it and let go. What did it do, and why? (You're on the right track, more or less; the issue isn't that solid objects don't have inertia -- of course they do or bullets wouldn't kill people -- the issue is that in a solid object, the atoms in the object are rigidly tied together, so stopping the outside of the egg stops the inside of the egg as well.)

Gas: yes, gases do have inertia, but it'd be hard to demonstrate this with an egg. Instead, you'll have to use a balloon -- blow it up, pinch the end shut, and then let go. It's the inertia of the air (and whatever water vapor is in your breath when you blow it up) that jets the balloon around the room.

Rockets (and runaway balloons) work by expelling gases out the nozzle of the engine, quickly enough that, if you get enough gases moving fast enough, they can lift multiple-ton space vehicles into orbit, and beyond. They don't "push on the air" as some people may tell you; there's no air in space, but rockets work there because they rely on the inertia of the gas being expelled to push the vehicle in the "equal and opposite" direction.

And finally, plasma works the same as gas (which is really what it is, a hot, highly-charged gas made up of ions). In fact, plasma-powered rockets like the ones in the JAXA Hayabusa Space Probe sent to asteroid Itokawa work by expelling high-velocity ions of xenon gas (plasma), electrically accelerated, out the back of the spacecraft instead of plumes of gas created by combustion. Again, the xenon molecules used by the Hayabusa don't have much inertia on their own, but get them moving very very fast and you can power a spacecraft with them.

Answer 2

Any matter with mass has inertia, whether it be solid, liquid, gas, or plasma. As an example, people know that racing cars going around sharp corners experience a strong force opposite to the turn, which is due to inertia. Hydraulic engineers face the same problem with high water flow around a sharp pipe bend. Unless the pipe elbow is well anchored in a foundation, the inertia of the water will actually displace the pipe. The reason why solid eggs spin better than wet eggs is because when a snap is given to impart the spin, a wet egg inside will tend to "stay put"....again, because of inertia!

Answer 3

Yes, it is. Of course, the gas inside an empty eggshell has so little mass that its angular momentum is insignificant. Same deal for plasma.

Answer 4

all objects have inertia

if you get on a skate board,you have to push it to go and if you stop it tacks time to slow down

when you breath on cold day,the air gos strait until it runs out of inertia,then it gos up

Answer 5

well, it is just the weight of the egg. if you look at it, one side is larger than the other, therefore that is how the egg spins.

Answer 6

Anything with mass will exhibit inertia.

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Answer 7

yes