Question

a high school science lab recently misplaced all of their triple beam balances. an experiment requires the students to know the mass of a particular object. the lab has digital force and acceleration sensors that students used to generate the graph below. what is the mass of the object?

Explanation:

Step1: Recall Newton's second law

Newton's second law is \(F = ma\), which can be rewritten as \(m=\frac{F}{a}\).

Step2: Select a point from the graph

From the graph, when \(F = 10\space N\), \(a=0.5\space m/s^{2}\).

Step3: Calculate the mass

Substitute \(F = 10\space N\) and \(a = 0.5\space m/s^{2}\) into the formula \(m=\frac{F}{a}\). So \(m=\frac{10}{0.5}=20\space kg\).

Answer:

\(20\space kg\)