Newton's Second Law

• What is Newton's second law?

  The acceleration of an object is proportional to the resultant force acting on the object and inversely proportional to the mass of the object
• What happens to an object if its resultant force is doubled?

  Its acceleration will be doubled
• What happens to an object if its mass is doubled?

  Its acceleration will be halved
• What the equation for Newton's second Law?

  Force = mass x acceleration
• Mass is a measure of what?

  Inertia
• To accelerate from a main road to a motorway, what is the typical acceleration involved?

  2 m/s ² (For a typical family car, that would require a force of 2000 N)
• What is the inertial mass of an object?

  A measure of how hard it is to change the velocity of an object
• An object with a larger inertial mass will require a larger force to change the velocity
• What is the ration that inertial mass is given by?

  Force over acceleration