Force= ma question

[Cells4life]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi there,
I am doing the EK 1001 physics question..I did question 169 on page 17. I looked at the answer explanations and it said that acceleration is independent of mass. However, according to F=ma, and all the questions prior to this, all the questions had mass accounted into the problem and I got all those questions right. I am confused since isn't that kind of contradictory?

 

[adrakdavra]

In the equation F=ma then a=F/m which means that for a constant force, the acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass it's applied to.
So far so good.

In the case of the acceleration due to gravity, however, all masses accelerate with the same amount of acceleration. (This was Galileo's famous experiment)
So we say that g is independent of mass.
The reason for this is that for a larger mass, there is also a larger force. A mass that is twice as large as another, also has a force of gravity (its weight) which is twice as large as the other. So it finishes up with the same acceleration.
g=F/m for the 1st mass and g =2F/2m for the one with double the mass (and double the weight).

 

[Cells4life]

In the equation F=ma then a=F/m which means that for a constant force, the acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass it's applied to.
So far so good.

In the case of the acceleration due to gravity, however, all masses accelerate with the same amount of acceleration. (This was Galileo's famous experiment)
So we say that g is independent of mass.
The reason for this is that for a larger mass, there is also a larger force. A mass that is twice as large as another, also has a force of gravity (its weight) which is twice as large as the other. So it finishes up with the same acceleration.
g=F/m for the 1st mass and g =2F/2m for the one with double the mass (and double the weight).

thanks so much!