Question

Two shopping carts are pushed with the same force. One cart has a larger mass than the other. How does the mass of the shopping carts affect their acceleration?
Question 9 options:

The cart with the smaller mass will accelerate faster.


The cart with the larger mass will accelerate faster.


The cart with the smaller mass will not accelerate as fast as that with the larger mass.


Both shopping carts will accelerate at the same rate since they are the same size.

Answer 1

Answer: The correct answer is the cart with the smaller mass will accelerate faster.

Explanation: According to Newtons Second Law, the net force is the product of the mass of the object and the acceleration of that object. The acceleration is in the same direction as that of the net force.

Mathematically,

$F=ma$

where,

F = net force

m = Mass of the object

a = acceleration of the object

In the question,

Force applied on two shopping carts is the same and mass of first cart is more than the mass of the second card.

$F_1=F_2\\m_1>m_2$

Acceleration is equal to $\frac{F}{m}$

As, acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the object, more the mass of the object less will be its acceleration and the object will move slowly.

Hence, the cart with smaller mass will accelerate faster than the cart having larger mass.

Answer 2

This would problem will be answered using the concept of momentum. Momentum is the mass times the velocity, where mass is inversely proportional to the velocity. This would mean that an object with greater mass will travel at a much lesser velocity, or vice versa.

Hence, the cart with the smaller mass will accelerate faster.