History of Inertia
Aristotle was the first man who had addressed objects in motion but during the first decade of the seventeenth century Galileo discovered inertia. Galileo's concept of inertia is that every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. In the year of 1642 Galileo died but Isaac Newton was born. During 686-87 Newton had published his book called "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy." The first thing he explained was the law of inertia. Basically, the idea of inertia goes back to Sir Isaac Newton’s first two laws of physics which is an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Inertia is the quality in matter (matter is anything that you can touch) that lets it stay still if it is still, or keeps it moving if it is moving if you want to overcome inertia you have to apply to a force.
Citation:
"THE LAW OF INERTIA." THE LAW OF INERTIA. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014.
This is some good information that I found on: http://www.quantummatter.com/origin-of-newtons-law-of-inertia/
Inertia is experienced by everyone when, for example, we move, turn a corner, spin on a piano stool, or throw a stone. To produce an acceleration of massive objects by applying a moving force, energy is required. But what happens to the energy? The mechanism of this energy transfer has been elusive. Both Galileo and Newton commented on this mysterious fact. Newton recognized that the distant planets-stars were involved but he could not understand how. He wrote: Anyone who believes that energy can travel instantly to the planets and back is a fool.
The physical origin of inertia could not be known without the introduction of the quantum Wave Structure of Matter (WSM) that replaces the ancient notion of matter as discrete “particles”. They do not exist. This is because inertia and other phenomena, especially gravity and spin, are entirely quantum wave behavior. Waves and their quantum space medium is the key to explaining their origins (See Wolff, 1995).
The origin lies in the behavior of the quantum space that is the medium of energy transfer. Understanding inertia begins with the wave structure of the electron, involves the philosophy of Ernst Mach, and requires a calculation of the entire Hubble Universe. The calculation of inertia below will predict Einstein’s General Relativity - in a simple form that everyone can understand (See Wolff, 1990).
Newton first published inertia in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) as three laws of motion. Galileo introduced the inertia concept about 1605, before Newton. Newton's Laws of Motion are the branch of physics now termed classical mechanics that begins with the equation F=ma . It concerns the energy transferred by the force F when mass m is given acceleration a. This is often regarded as the beginning of modern physics. But no one knew what produces this equation, a basic natural law.