Force, mass and acceleration

Applying a force
Students investigate the relationship between force, mass and acceleration in the laboratory.
• How do the students apply a constant force to accelerate the trucks?
• When they apply the same force to different masses, which accelerates faster-the larger mass or the smaller mass?
• If they keep the mass constant but increase the force, how does the acceleration change?
• Give one reason why it’s difficult to do the experiment accurately.
Experiments in space
A spaceship is a better place to measure the accelerations produced by different forces.
• Why is a spaceship a good place to do experiments on force and acceleration?
How force affects acceleration
The diagrams show some experiments in a spaceship.
The same 1 kg mass is accelerated using different forces.
• How much acceleration does a 1 N force give tgo the 1 kg mass?
• How much acceleration does a 2 N force give?
Copy and complete the sentence.
• When the force on an object is doubled, its acceleration is _______________
How mass affects acceleration
A 1 N force is then used to accelerate different masses.
• How much acceleration do you get when the mass is twice as big?
• How much acceleration do you get when the mass is three times as big?
Copy and complete the sentence.
• If the force stays the same, an object with twice as much mass is given half as much __________
A force of1 N acting on a mass of 1 kg produces an acceleration of 1 m/s2.