Coffee Cup and Inertia

The other day I challenged the laws of physics and the laws of physics won.  It wasn't just a win.  It was a beat down!!!  So what happened?  On my way out the door one morning I had a travel coffee mug in my hand filled with coffee (because why would it be empty).  It was my new ceramic Disney World travel mug I purchased in June when we were at Disney World.  As I walked into the garage I noticed the neighbors had their garbage cans out because it was garbage pick up day.  I sat my coffee mug on the trunk of my car, grabbed the garbage can, rolled it out to the street, and headed back to the garage.  You can see where this is headed.

Yep, you guessed it.  I walked right past my coffee travel mug and got into my car and started to back out of the garage.  Looking back I caught the coffee travel mug out the corner of my eye.  My natural reaction was to hit the brakes and in mid-motion of hitting the brakes I was screaming in my head "No!  No!  No!  No!".  Why?  Inertia.  That's why.  The travel mug stayed steady as the car moved.  Once I hit the brakes, the car stopped, but the travel mug had its own motion (inertia).  Friction was not able to hold the coffee travel mug in place, so it continued to move backward, tipping over, crashing to the concrete driveway, and shattering in 100 pieces.  :-(  I liked that coffee travel mug!!!

So there you have it.  I challenged inertia (and gravity) and it won.  DAMN YOU INERTIA!!!!