Ushering in 2012 in Lazy Man's Style

While many sleep-off the effects of holiday revelry on New Year's Day, a group of residents in the Palisades neighborhood meet at 8 a.m. at the Dalecarlia Bridge on the Capital Crescent bikepath to pay homage to Sir Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion. That law famously states that an object at motion tends to remain in motion, while an object at rest tends to remain at rest—it's not as simple as that when frames of reference are utilized in its analysis. 

Participants ride bicycles and other "wheeled conveyances" using their mass (some attach weights or chains to themselves to increase their masses) and the gravitational pull of the Earth to gain velocity. The winner is the person who rides for the longest distance down the path towards Georgetown.

The event, dubbed the "Inertiad", has been held for a couple of decades now. No one knows exactly how it began. Ironically, no one really seems to care about the lack of an "origin," which is essential when understanding a body's motion. Organizer Michael Dolan, who won this year's race, simply and unapologetically explains that "the origins are shrouded in the mists of time."

The Law of Inertia, as formulated in Newton's Principia, was known prior to its publication in 1687 by Galileo and others. Newton, in fact, gave credit to Galileo for his work on the subject. Newton's concepts of motion, collectively known as the Three Laws of Motion, formed the basis for classical physics that stood for over 200 years—and many are still usable—until Albert Einstein published his theories on relativity. Our understanding of the physical world has continued to change dramatically ever since.

But why is the Intertiad just the right event for a lazy man (the Latin root iners means "lazy")? Michael Dolan's response to winning the less than physically challenging event may provide the clue--"I'm going home to rest right now. See you next year at 8 a.m."