Apples Falling, Buckets Rolling, and Why Inertia Keeps Trolling

Abstract: Inertia is the most fundamental and yet elusive concept in physics. Modern geniuses such as Newton and Einstein have wondered about its nature, but the last word has yet to be said and "the question of questions" still remains: what is inertia? In the paper, analysing the properties and criticalities of the concept of geodesic, I propose to separate the notion of geodesic inertial motion from that of natural motion, which I identify as motion characterised by a generalised version of the geodesic deviation. This strategy succeeds in shedding new light on the motion of bodies.