A teacher is demonstrating acceleration to his class by throwing two balls. He throws both balls using the same amount of force in the same direction. The first ball he throws has a mass of 0.1 kg and the second ball has a mass of 0.5 kg. Explain why.

Question

A teacher is demonstrating acceleration to his class by throwing two balls. He throws both balls using the same amount of force in the same direction. The first ball he throws has a mass of 0.1 kg and the second ball has a mass of 0.5 kg. Explain why.

Responses

The first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have greater acceleration than the second ball.
The first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have greater acceleration than the second ball.

The first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have less acceleration than the second ball.
The first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have less acceleration than the second ball.

The balls will have equal acceleration because they are being thrown in the same direction.
The balls will have equal acceleration because they are being thrown in the same direction.

The balls will have equal acceleration because they are being thrown with the same force.

Answer 1

The first option is the correct response: The first ball has a smaller mass, so it will have greater acceleration than the second ball. This is because acceleration is inversely proportional to mass when the force applied is constant. In this case, since both balls are thrown with the same force, the ball with the smaller mass will experience a greater acceleration. This can be understood using Newton's second law of motion, which states that force equals mass times acceleration (F=ma). Therefore, a smaller mass will result in a larger acceleration.