How does Newton’s first law explain why a soccer ball stays still until it is kicked?

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Title page of Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687, featuring large Latin text and publication details in a bordered layout. — Newton’s laws of motion The title page of Isaac Newton's *Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica* (1687; *Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy*), the work in which the physicist introduced his three laws of motion.

A soccer ball stays still because of Newton’s first law of motion, also known as the law of inertia. This principle states that every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.1

In the case of a stationary soccer ball, the object possesses a natural tendency to remain at rest. Because there is no net external force acting on the ball to change its state, it remains immobile. The ball will only begin to move when an external force—such as a kick—is applied to it, overcoming its inertia and compelling it to change its state of rest.21