Question

liz puts a 1 kg weight and a 10 kg weight on identical sleds. she then applies a 10 n force to each sled. explain why the smaller weight has a larger acceleration. choose the best answer.
acceleration is directly proportional to the force.
the same amount of force is applied to both sleds.
acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the object.
it indicates the extent of the unbalanced forces present.

Explanation:

According to Newton's second - law $F = ma$ (where $F$ is force, $m$ is mass and $a$ is acceleration), when $F$ is constant, $a=\frac{F}{m}$, meaning acceleration is inversely proportional to mass. Since the force on both sleds is the same (10 N) and the 1 kg mass is smaller than the 10 kg mass, the 1 kg mass will have a larger acceleration.

Answer:

Acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the object.