Ouestion One

Question

A force is applied to a 2.3 kg mass and produces 5.5 m/s2 acceleration. What acceleration would be produced by the same force applied to a 5.1 kg mass?

Answer 1

Use F=ma,  where   m=2.3 kg    and      a=5.5 m/s^{2     we don't have F which is the applied force.}

 

so F = (2.3 kg) (5.5 m/s²) = 12.65 N

 

Now, we want to see what the acceleration would be when the same force (=12.65) is applied to a 5.1 kg mass.

 

Again we will use the same formula:    F= ma  so  a= F/m

 

a= 12.65 / 5.1 = 2.48  m/s²

 

 

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

The key equation here is F=ma (F=Force, m=mass, a=acceleration.) There are two objects with two masses and two accelerations, so we need two of these equations:

 

F₁=m₁a₁ for the first object,

F₂=m₂a₂ for the second object.

 

We know

m₁=2.3kg

a₁=5.5m/(s^2)

 

m₂=5.1kg

a₂ is what needs to be computed. 

 

We could compute F₁ but it is not necessary. The problems says that the force applied to the first object is the same as the force applied to the second object:

 

F₂=F_1.

 

By the above equations, this gives

 

m₂a₂=m₁a₁

 

Remember that a₂ is what we need to find. We do that by dividing both sides of the equation by m₁:

 

a₂=(m₁/m₂)a₁

 

Now plug the numbers in and compute:

 

a2=(m1/m2)a1=((2.3 kg)/(5.1 kg))*(5.5m/s^2)=(2.3/5.1)*5.5=2.5 m/s^2

Answer 3

F=ma ~ F = 2.3kg * 5.5m/s² = 12.65 N

Using this same equation:

12.65N = 5.1kg * a

a = 12.65/5.1 = 2.5 m/s²