This experiment is testing the relationship between mass and acceleration. A string is connecting the car (M1) to a mass (M2). What will happen to the acceleration of the car if the mass (m2) is doubled? How do you know?
If the mass (M2) is doubled, the acceleration of the car (M1) will decrease. This can be explained by Newton's second law of motion, which states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force applied to it and inversely proportional to its mass.
In this scenario, the force pulling the car forward is determined by the tension in the string, which is ultimately determined by the weight of the mass hanging on the other end (M2). When the mass is doubled, the weight and, therefore, the force pulling the car forward also doubles. However, since the mass of the car remains constant, the increased force is now acting on a larger mass compared to before.
As a result, the acceleration of the car decreases because the larger mass requires more force to produce the same acceleration. This relationship between mass and acceleration is described by the equation F = m * a, where F is the force, m is the mass, and a is the acceleration. Since the force increases and the mass increases, the acceleration decreases to maintain the equilibrium in the equation.
simple
If the mass (M2) is doubled, the acceleration of the car (M1) will be halved.
how do you know
I know this because of Newton's second law of motion, which states that the acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass. When the mass on the end of the string is doubled, the total mass that the car is connected to also doubles. As a result, the acceleration of the car will be halved because it requires more force to accelerate a larger mass.
To determine the effect of doubling the mass (M2) on the acceleration of the car (M1) in this experiment, we can use Newton's second law of motion which states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass.
In this case, the force acting on the system is the tension in the string, which is the force pulling the car and the mass. We can assume that the force applied by the car (M1) remains constant.
When the mass (M2) is doubled, the total mass of the system (M1 + M2) will also increase. Since the net force (tension in the string) acting on the system remains constant, doubling the mass will result in a decrease in acceleration.
Mathematically, we can represent this relationship using the equation:
Acceleration = Net Force / Total Mass
Since the force applied by the car remains the same, and the total mass (M1 + M2) is now larger, the acceleration will decrease.
To further quantify the effect of doubling the mass, we could calculate the acceleration by dividing the force applied by the car by the total mass before and after doubling M2. By comparing these calculated acceleration values, it will be clear that the acceleration decreases when the mass M2 is doubled.