Galileo studied the motion of objects and found that an object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest unless acted on by an external force. This first law of motion, also known as the law of inertia, was further explored by Newton who formulated three laws of motion. The first law states that an object will remain in the same state of motion unless a force acts upon it. Examples include a coin remaining stationary inside a moving card due to inertia, and a rock thrown in space continuing in a straight line at constant speed due to inertia.