Question

Jodie sets two objects on a flat surface. Object A has a mass of 50g, while object B has a mass of 250g. Jodie pushes both objects with the same force and watches them speed up. Which object will speed up more?

Answer 1

Object A, which has a mass of 50g will speed up more.

Explanation:

• The object which has a greater acceleration will speed up more.

Based on Newton's second law of motion, Force on an object is equal to its mass multiplied by the acceleration, and is written as:

`F=ma`

We are given the mass of two objects and asked which one of them would have more acceleration. We can rearrange the equation to solve for 'a'.

`a=F/m`

Since both objects have the same force applied to them, we can assume it to be 10 N (you can assume it to be any value you like since its a constant). Now, we can solve for the acceleration for both of the objects and see which one is greater than the other.

For object A,

`a=F/m=(10 N)/(0.050 kg)=200 ms^-2`

For object B,

`a=F/m=(10 N)/(0.250 kg)=40 ms^-2`

Based on the two values of acceleration, we can see that Object A, which has a mass of 50g will speed up more as it has a greater acceleration of `200 ms^-2` compared to that of the 250g object which has an acceleration of `40 ms^-2`.

Final Answer:
Object A will speed up more as it has greater acceleration when compared to Object B.