If a hockey puck slides on a perfectly frictionless surface, it will eventually slow down because of its inertia.
The correct answer and explanation is:
The statement that a hockey puck sliding on a perfectly frictionless surface will eventually slow down because of its inertia is incorrect. In fact, if the surface is perfectly frictionless, the puck will continue to slide indefinitely without slowing down. This is due to the principle of inertia, which states that an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force.
Inertia is a property of matter that resists changes to its state of motion. A hockey puck sliding on a frictionless surface has no external forces acting on it to slow it down. Since there is no friction or any other resistance, there is no force to oppose its motion. As a result, the puck will continue moving with a constant velocity in a straight line according to Newton’s first law of motion.
Friction, however, is a force that resists the motion of an object sliding on a surface. In real-world scenarios, friction is always present to some degree, and it would cause the puck to eventually slow down and stop. In the hypothetical situation of a perfectly frictionless surface, no such force is present, so the puck will keep moving with no loss of speed.
This concept aligns with the idea of a vacuum or an idealized environment where no forces like friction or air resistance exist. In such cases, objects would move endlessly unless another force, such as a collision with another object, is introduced. Therefore, the key takeaway here is that inertia ensures the puck remains in motion without slowing down, as long as there are no external forces like friction or air resistance to alter its state.