Newton’s Second Law of Motion is expressed as F = ma. If you are pushing a lawn mower in your backyard and suddenly double the pushing force, what will happen to the lawn mower's rate of acceleration? The mass of the lawn mower is constant.
A.
The acceleration will double.
B.
The acceleration will decrease by half.
C.
The acceleration will remain constant.
D.
The acceleration will triple.
If you double the force you double the acceleration.
Damon is Correct
To determine what will happen to the lawn mower's rate of acceleration when the pushing force is doubled, we need to use Newton's Second Law of Motion, which states that the force acting on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its acceleration (F = ma). In this case, the mass of the lawn mower is constant.
When the force is doubled (2F), and the mass is constant, we can rewrite Newton's Second Law as 2F = m(a).
To find the new acceleration, a', we divide both sides of the equation by the mass:
2F/m = a'
Since the mass is constant,
(2F/m) = (2F/m)(1) = (2/m)(F) = 2F/m = a'
Therefore, the acceleration, a', becomes twice the original acceleration (a). So, the correct answer is:
A. The acceleration will double.