Question

Which law of motion accounts for the following statement? "An apple accelerates as it falls from a tree."

Answer 1

It is Newton's second law

Step-by-step explanation:

According to the Newton's second law, the force acting on the body is directly proportional to the mass of the body and the acceleration in the body.

Here acceleration is equal to the acceleration due to gravity.

So, the force acting on the apple is given by

F m g

where, m is the mass of apple.

This force is called the force of gravity and its direction is always towards the centre of earth.

Answer 2

Although one could definitely directly connect an "apple falling" with Newton's first law of motion, which is gravity, since the question states about acceleration, then we can relate the statement to Newton's second law of motion, the law of acceleration.