Question

suppose you have two cars, with the larger one having twice the mass of the smaller one. if you and a friend push the cars so that they have equal accelerations, how must the forces applied to each car compare?

Answer 1

According to Newton's Second Law of Motion, the force applied to the larger car must be double the force applied to the smaller car for both to have equal accelerations.

Step-by-step explanation:

The forces you and your friend apply to the cars must be different. According to Newton's Second Law of Motion, the force applied to an object is equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration (F=ma). Since the two cars have the same acceleration but different masses, the force applied to the larger car must be twice as much as the force applied to the smaller car.

In other words, if you apply a force of F to the smaller car to achieve a certain acceleration, you would need to apply a force of 2F to the larger car to achieve the same acceleration. This is due to the larger car having twice the mass of the smaller car.

Learn more about Newton's Second Law of Motion