Phy10l b2 e104

Results and Discussion The experiment was divided into two divisions, the fi rst one was with constant mass and a changing net force, and the other one is with changing mass and constant net force. The first one the group did was with constant mass and a changing net force. It was started by placing the dynam ics track flat o n the table then attaching a stri ng on the dynamics cart to the w eight hanger. Having the photogates at 30 cm and 70 cm mar ks. 20 g was added to the weight hanger for the first trial, recording the time travelled by the cart, the first trial was done. Each trial, the weight added to the hanger increases by 20 g. The next p art was with changing mass but consta nt net force. In this part, the weight was being added to cart itself, inst ead of the h anger. The hanger has a weight of 100 g added. With the same po sitions of photogates, 100 g was added to the cart and time was computed for trial 1. 100 g was adde d to the w eight of the track each trial.

Figure 1. Part A of the experiment

Figure 2. Part B of the experiment

1.2

1 0.8

0.8

Acceleration

Acceleration

1

0.6 0.4 0.2

0.6 0.4 0.2

0

0

0.5

1

Net Force

Figure 3. Graph for part A

1.5

2

0 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Mass of cart + Mass added

Figure 4. Graph for part B

1

Conclusions In conclusion, if the n et force applied to an object increases, the acceleration of the object also increases. Hence, the acceleration of an object is directionally proportion al to the net force it experiences when the mass is constant. As the mass of an object increases, the acceleration decr eases. Therefore, the mass of the object is inversely proportional to its acceleration when the force acti ng on it is constant. This means that objects which are less mas sive are expected to move much faster when experiencing net force. Also, the acceleration follows the direction of the n et force. The same thing can be app lied to any moving object. Say you have a friend who is several pound s smaller than you, but they walk exerting the same amount of force as you. Your friend w ill be faster than you because their acceleration would undoubtedly be higher. One of the main reasons why people constantly try to re duce the mass of objects is to be able to increase its speed and acceleration. As menti oned before, all of the factor s have an effect on each other. If something has much more mass, then exerting mo re force will make it move faster. It’s the reason why a small child won’t be able to throw a football the same distance as a professional, since the child would be unable to exert the same amount of force that the football player would.

References Andrew Motte translation of Newton's Principia (1687) Axioms or Laws of Motion

Walter Lewin (20 September 1999). Newton's First, Second, and Third Laws. MIT Course 8.01: Classical Mechanics, Lecture 6 ). Cambridge, MA USA: MIT OCW. Event occurs at 0:00–6:53. Retrieved 23 December 2010.