Student's Investigation on Acceleration Using Carts and Cargo
What is the goal of the student's investigation on acceleration?
The students use combinations of three carts and three types of cargo to investigate acceleration. If an identical force is applied to all the combinations, what combination of a cart and cargo will produce the greatest acceleration? Choose the correct option.
1) Cart 1 and Cargo 1
2) Cart 1 and Cargo 2
3) Cart 1 and Cargo 3
4) Cart 2 and Cargo 1
5) Cart 2 and Cargo 2
6) Cart 2 and Cargo 3
7) Cart 3 and Cargo 1
8) Cart 3 and Cargo 2
9) Cart 3 and Cargo 3
Answer:
Cart 2 and Cargo 3 (option 6) will produce the greatest acceleration.
In order to determine which combination of a cart and cargo will produce the greatest acceleration, we need to consider Newton's second law, which states that acceleration is directly proportional to the net force applied and inversely proportional to the mass of the object.
Since the force applied to all combinations is identical, we can focus on the masses of the carts and cargo. The combination that will produce the greatest acceleration is the one with the smallest total mass. Therefore, the combination with Cart 2 and Cargo 3 (option 6) will produce the greatest acceleration as it has the smallest total mass.