221k views
5 votes
A car has a forward acceleration. How would the acceleration of the car be different if it had more mass

User Fazlul
by
4.8k points

2 Answers

1 vote

Answer: Its acceleration would decrease.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is not very clearly worded. A better way to say what they’re really asking is, how would the acceleration of the car be different if it had more mass, given that the same forces were acting on it?

With that caveat in place, we can consider the general equation for force, mass, and acceleration, F = ma. If we solve this for acceleration, we get a = F/m. From this equation and a few sample numbers, we can see that increasing mass decreases acceleration.

Let’s use force = 1 and mass = 1 for our first example. That gives us a = f/m = 1/1 = 1.

If we then double the mass to 2 while keeping the force the same, we get a = f/m = 1/2 = 0.5. This clearly halves the acceleration when the mass is doubled.

I hope from this example you can see that more mass = less acceleration, given the same amount of force.

User Stratwine
by
4.9k points
3 votes

Answer:

slower

Step-by-step explanation:

more mass= more force required to move

if you took a little Honda civic with 160hp, thats easy to move because the car is light so the engine can move it. But, if you take a feightliner, its harder to move because its heavier.

User Chewy
by
4.6k points