Students are using the experimental setup shown in the image in which the two ends of a string are attached to a car and to a hanger. The students conduct three trials in which they place metal discs on the hanger to manipulate the force applied to the car. As a result, the car accelerates along the table while two probes collect motion data. On the fourth trial of this experiment, a student places some discs on the car by mistake. In 1-2 sentences, explain how this would this change the acceleration or velocity?
Placing discs on the car by mistake would increase the mass of the car and hence decrease its acceleration, resulting in a lower velocity.
Placing metal discs on the car instead of the hanger would increase the mass of the car, resulting in a decrease in acceleration and potentially a decrease in velocity as well.
Placing discs on the car in the fourth trial would increase the total mass of the car-disc system, which would likely result in a decrease in acceleration and a decrease in velocity compared to the previous trials.
