Posted by Juliette on Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 4:58pm.
Hi-I have a question-we're studying Newton's Laws and my question is:
If I have a constant, non-zero force, how does the accleration change as the mass is changed.
I think it changes proportionally-because the formula F = ma so therefore if 2 times 2 = 4 and you increase one, to make 4, you'd have to decrease slightly the other or you would end up will too much force which woulnd't be constant- yes or no
the acceleration is decreasing as you increase the mass while keeping the Force constant....
a=F/M
Can't you have the acceleration increase as you decrease mass, also?
according to the equation, the acceleration increase as mass decreases......
Yes, you are correct. According to Newton's second law of motion, the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass. The formula F = ma represents this relationship, where F is the net force, m is the mass of the object, and a is its acceleration.
So, if you have a constant, non-zero force and you change the mass of the object, the acceleration will change proportionally. If you increase the mass, the acceleration will decrease, and if you decrease the mass, the acceleration will increase. This is because for a given force, a larger mass requires more force to accelerate, while a smaller mass requires less force to accelerate.
In other words, the greater the mass, the smaller the resulting acceleration for a given force. And conversely, the smaller the mass, the greater the resulting acceleration for a given force.
To understand this concept intuitively, you can imagine pushing two objects with the same force but different masses. The lighter object will accelerate more quickly compared to the heavier object. This relationship between force, mass, and acceleration is fundamental to Newton's laws of motion.