Hi-I have a question-we're studying Newton's Laws and my question is:
If I have a constant, non-zero force, how does the accleration change as the mass is changed.
I think it changes proportionally-yes, or no but I'm not sure why except to say that's the law
Thank you
Hi! Newton's second law of motion states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass. So, if you have a constant, non-zero force, the acceleration will indeed change as the mass is changed.
To understand why, let's break it down step by step:
1. Newton's second law: The equation for Newton's second law is F = ma, where F represents the net force, m represents the mass of the object, and a represents the acceleration of the object.
2. Proportional relationship: According to the equation F = ma, acceleration (a) is directly proportional to force (F) and inversely proportional to mass (m). This means that if the force is kept constant and the mass is increased, the acceleration will decrease. Similarly, if the mass is decreased, the acceleration will increase.
3. Intuition behind the relationship: When more mass is added to an object, it becomes harder to accelerate it with the same amount of force. This is because the mass resists changes in motion. So, larger masses require more force to achieve the same acceleration as smaller masses.
Overall, the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration can be summarized by saying that the acceleration changes proportionally to the mass when a constant, non-zero force is applied.