Question

Big Mocci and Nate each have bowling balls with the same mass. They both roll them as hard as they can and then measure the speed of the balls. Big Mocci's ball and Nate's ball were measured to have the exact same speed. What do you know about the forces applied by the boys?

a. Both Big Mocci and Nate applied equal forces to their balls.
b. Big Mocci applied a greater force to his ball.
c. Nate applied a greater force to his ball.
d. The question does not provide enough information to determine the forces.

Answer 1

Both Big Mocci and Nate applied equal forces to their bowling balls; this is because the balls have the same mass and achieved the same speed, assuming the same amount of time and no differing external influences during the acceleration phase.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is concerned with the forces applied by Big Mocci and Nate when they roll their bowling balls, which have the same mass and achieve the same final speed. According to Newton's second law of motion, the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass, given by the formula F = ma. Since both bowling balls have the same mass and are both accelerated to the same speed, and assuming that they were both accelerated for the same amount of time, we can infer that the force applied by Big Mocci and Nate on their respective balls would also be the same. Therefore, the answer is (a): Both Big Mocci and Nate applied equal forces to their balls, assuming no other external forces acted differently on the balls. This also assumes that friction and other potential differences in their rolling conditions are negligible or equal for both balls.