A student wanted to investigate changing the mass of a cart that you can push. The student pushed both carts with a force of 200 newtons. If one cart has a mass of 100 kg and the other cart has a mass of 50 kg what results would the student expect to see as far as how fast each cart moved in comparison with one another?
According to Newton's second law of motion, the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force applied on it and inversely proportional to its mass. Therefore, for the same force applied (200 Newtons), the cart with a smaller mass (50 kg) would experience a greater acceleration compared to the cart with a larger mass (100 kg).
Assuming there are no other external factors affecting the motion of the carts, the cart with a mass of 50 kg would move faster than the cart with a mass of 100 kg.