Question

A group of students conducted several trials of an experiment to study Newton’s second law of motion. They concluded that tripling the mass required tripling the net force applied. What quantity were the students holding constant?

net force

acceleration <-- MY ANSWER

number of trials

mass

Answer 1

Acceleration

Explanation:

The Newton's second law of motion can be expressed as;

F = ma

Where F is the force acting on an object, m is the mass of the object and a is the acceleration of the object.

For an object of mass 2kg and acceleration of 5 m/
`s^(2)`, we have;

`F_(1)` = 2 × 5 = 10 N

If we triple the mass,

m = 2 × 3 = 6 kg

Therefore,

`F_(2)` = 6 × 5 = 30 N

Thus, at constant acceleration,
`F_(2)` = 3 ×
`F_(1)`