system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What exactly are the differences between Active ingredients and Inactive ingredients in medicine?

Obviously (or so I think), the active ingredient is the one that is the most important for chemical reaction to help out the taker's problem. But what exactly is the purpose of the inactive ingredients? Is the name "inactive" a misnomer because the name seems to imply it does nothing? 

For example I have some flavored Tums (an antacid) in front of me:

Active Ingredient: Calcium carbonate USB

Inactive ingredients: Sucrose (for flavor?), Calcium carbonate, corn starch, talc, mineral oil, natural and artificial flavor, adipic acid, sodium polyphosphate, red 40 lake, yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 (tartrazine) lake, blue 1 lake.

I'm guessing the lakes are food coloring.
gpt
* Binders/Fillers(They aren't mutually exclusive): Sucrose, corn starch, and mineral oil
* Ph Buffers: Calcium carbonate
* Anti caking(during manufacturing): talc, and sodium polyphosphate(not sure) 
* Flavoring: natural and artificial flavor, and adipic acid
* Coloring: red 40 lake, yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 (tartrazine) lake,and blue 1 lake.