Force, Mass & Acceleration

This practical lesson covers:

  1. How to determine relationship between force, mass and acceleration

Investigating the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration


Aim:

To investigate the effect of varying the force on the acceleration of an object of constant mass, and the effect of varying the mass of an object on the acceleration produced by a constant force. 

Background information:

Newton's second law states that the acceleration experienced by an object is directly proportional to the net applied force. This practical investigates the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration by measuring the applied force and acceleration of a trolley.

Variables:

  1. Independent variable - Applied force.
  2. Dependent variable - Acceleration of the trolley 
  3. Control variables - Trolley.

A student repeats the experiment 4 times and records the following values for acceleration:

0.26 m/s2, 0.28 m/s2 ,0.41 m/s2 and 0.27 m/s2. Which result is anomalous?

0.26 m/s2

0.27 m/s2

0.41 m/s2

0.28 m/s2

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How should the student treat the anomalous result?

ignore it and calculate the mean for the other points.

calculate the mean of all data points.

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Calculate the mean acceleration for the student's data:

0.26 m/s2, 0.28 m/s2 ,0.41 m/s2 and 0.27 m/s2.

0.31 m/s2

0.27 m/s2

1.22 m/s2

0.20 m/s2

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Which of the following is the equation which links force, mass and acceleration?

force = accelerationmass​
force = mass + acceleration
acceleration = massforce​
mass = forceacceleration​

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