Read the scenario.
A boulder with a mass of 50 kg is sitting in a backyard.
If the boulder were half the mass, what could be said about the gravitational force on the boulder?
It would be reduced to one quarter.
It would not change.
It would be doubled.
It would be cut in half.
I think the answer is b because of the feather and watermelon drop test but i have no clue
The answer is D.
yes, D.
force = mass * gravitational constant acceleration g
if half the mass, half the force
The feather and melon thing is about acceleration, g, not force m g.
They both accelerate down at 1 g, if there is no air around of course.
To understand how the gravitational force on the boulder would change if its mass were halved, we can refer to Newton's law of universal gravitation. According to this law, the gravitational force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.
In the given scenario, the boulder has a mass of 50 kg. If we halve the mass of the boulder, it would become 25 kg. Let's evaluate the effect of this change on the gravitational force.
Since the mass of the boulder is reduced by a factor of 2 (from 50 kg to 25 kg), according to Newton's law of universal gravitation, the gravitational force between the boulder and the Earth would decrease. However, to determine the exact change, we need to consider the inverse square relationship with distance.
Assuming that the distance between the boulder and the Earth remains constant, the gravitational force would be reduced to one-fourth of its original value (not one-quarter, as the wording can be misleading). This is because reducing the mass by a factor of 2 results in a reduction of the gravitational force by a factor of 2, and the inverse square relationship further reduces the force by an additional factor of 2.
Therefore, the correct answer would be: The gravitational force on the boulder would be reduced to one-fourth.
Gravitational force's strength depends on the objects' mass and the distance between them.
I just took the test anyway lol***