According to Newton's Second Law of Motion, the sum of the forces that act on an object with a mass m that moves with an acceleration a is equal to ma. An object whose mass is 80 grams has an acceleration of 20 meters per seconds squared. What calculation will give us the sum of the forces that act on the object, in Newtons (which are kg×m/s2)?
Q. According to Newton's Second Law of Motion, the sum of the forces that act on an object with a mass m that moves with an acceleration a is equal to ma. An object whose mass is 80 grams has an acceleration of 20 meters per seconds squared. What calculation will give us the sum of the forces that act on the object, in Newtons (which are kg×m/s2)?
Convert to kilograms: Convert the mass from grams to kilograms, because the unit for mass in the formula F=ma (Newton's Second Law) should be in kilograms (kg).1 gram =0.001 kilograms80 grams =80×0.001 kg80 grams =0.08 kg
Calculate force using formula: Use Newton's Second Law of Motion formula to calculate the force.Force F=m×aGiven: m=0.08kg (from Step 1), a=20m/s2F=0.08kg×20m/s2F=1.6kg⋅m/s2
Determine total force: Since the unit of force is Newtons (N) and 1N=1kg⋅m/s2, the force calculated in Step 2 is already in the correct unit.Therefore, the sum of the forces acting on the object is 1.6Newtons.
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