Final answer:
It's difficult to move heavier objects due to increased friction with the ground and their greater mass, which necessitates more force to overcome inertia and gravity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The difficulty in moving heavier objects compared to lighter ones can largely be attributed to forces of friction and the mass of the objects. When you try to move an object, you encounter friction, which comes from the microscopic roughness of the two surfaces in contact. This frictional force increases with the weight of the object, as a heavier object will push down more strongly against the surface, necessitating more force to overcome this friction and start the object moving.
Additionally, an object's mass directly affects the amount of force needed to accelerate it, as per Newton's second law of motion (F=ma), where F is the force applied, m is the mass, and a is the acceleration). A heavier object has more mass and thus requires a greater force to achieve the same acceleration as a lighter one. When dealing with very heavy objects, the amount of effort needed to achieve this can be substantial.
In the context of historical science, it was once believed that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones—however, this has been corrected by modern physics. Both heavy and light objects fall at the same rate in the absence of air resistance. The misconception that heavier objects fall faster persisted due to the lack of understanding of gravity and friction as forces that can act at a distance.