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Home Minds On Newton's Laws Mission NL7 Newton's Second Law Help Help 8

Mission NL7 Newton's Second Law

The Question

An object has an acceleration of 12.8 m/s/s. If the net force experienced by the object is increased (or decreased) by a factor of 2.5 and if the mass of the object is increased by a factor of 3.3, then the new acceleration would be ...

(Note: Numbers are randomized numbers and likely different from the numbers listed here.)

Physics Rules

Newton's Second Law
The acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object.

Formula Fix

The relationship between net force (Fnet), mass (m) and acceleration (a) is expressed by the equation
 
a = Fnet/ m

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Minds On Time

To be successful on this question, you will have to think about the meaning of the statement: the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force that it experiences and inversely proportional to its mass. Whatever change is made in the net force, the same change will be made to the acceleration. So if the net force is increased by a factor of 2, the acceleration will be increased by a factor of 2 (that is, multiplied by 2). And whatever change is made in the object's mass, the oppositechange will be made to the acceleration. So if the object mass is increased by a factor of 3, the acceleration will be decreased by a factor of 3 (that is, divided by 3). Thus two changes will have to be made to the original acceleration value - it will have to be multiplied or divided by two different factors.

Take your time and think it through - that's what Minds On is all about.

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