Newton’s Second Law: Determination of Acceleration
Newton’s Second Law
Newton’s second law states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on the object and inversely proportional to the object’s mass. The S.I unit of force is Newton (N).
The mathematical form of Newton’s second law is
Fnet = m a
The animation below demonstrates how Newton’s second law applies to the motion of a toy car on a table and how its velocity changes according to the force. When the wind blows lightly, the acceleration is small, but when the wind blows hard, the acceleration is greater.
As the force increases the acceleration also increases.
Acceleration also varies for different masses when the same force is applied.
In this example, the lighter car (less mass) moves with a greater acceleration than the larger car (greater mass). They are both undergoing the same amount of wind (same force).
Smaller car (less mass) has greater acceleration.
Bigger car (larger mass) has lesser acceleration.