A student is demonstrating acceleration by throwing two balls. she throws both balls using the same amount of force in the same direction. the first ball she throws has a mass of 0.25 kg and the second ball has a mass of 0.5 kg.
explain what will happen to their acceleration and why.
A. the balls will have equal acceleration because they are being thrown with the same force.
B. the first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have greater acceleration than the second ball.
C. the balls have equal acceleration because they are being thrown in the same direction.
D. the first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have less acceleration than the second ball.
B. the first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have greater acceleration than the second ball.
According to Newton's second law of motion, the acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass. Therefore, if the same amount of force is applied to two objects with different masses, the object with a smaller mass will experience greater acceleration. In this case, the first ball has a mass of 0.25 kg, which is smaller than the second ball's mass of 0.5 kg. As a result, the first ball will experience greater acceleration compared to the second ball.
B. the first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have greater acceleration than the second ball.
According to Newton's second law of motion, the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass. Since the student is throwing both balls with the same amount of force, the ball with the smaller mass (0.25 kg) will experience a greater acceleration compared to the ball with the larger mass (0.5 kg). This is because a smaller mass results in less inertia, meaning it is easier to accelerate.
To determine what will happen to the acceleration of the two balls, we need to understand 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 = m * a).
In this scenario, the student is throwing both balls with the same amount of force in the same direction. However, the masses of the balls are different. The first ball has a mass of 0.25 kg, while the second ball has a mass of 0.5 kg.
According to Newton's second law, if the force is the same, but the mass is different, the acceleration of the balls will not be the same. The acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass. In simpler terms, the smaller the mass, the greater the acceleration for a given force.
Therefore, the correct answer is option B: the first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have greater acceleration than the second ball.