Question

A net force of 16 n causes a mass to accelerate at a rate of 5m/s. What is the mass?

Answer 1

The mass is 3.2 kilograms.

Explanation:

Don't mean to be discouraging, but this is about as easy as physics gets.

Use Newton's Second Law of physics.

`F=ma`

where `F` is the force, `m` is the mass, and `a` is the acceleration.

Remember that 1 Newton = 1 N = 1 `kg m/s^2`. If we express the force in Newtons, and the acceleration in `m/s^2`, then our mass will be in kilograms.

Solving Newton's Second Law for `m` gives

`m=F/a`

My belief is that the problem statement SHOULD have been that the acceleration = `5m/(s^2)`, so

`m=(16 kg*m/s^2)/(5m/s^2)=3.2kg`.

Answer 2

The mass is `3.2` kilograms.

Explanation:

We use Newton's second law, which states that,

`F=ma`

• `F` is the force in newtons

• `m` is the mass in kilograms

• `a` is the acceleration in meters per second

And so, we get,

`16 \ "N"=m*5 \ "m/s"^2`

`m=(16 \ "N")/(5 \ "m/s"^2)`

`=3.2 \ "kg"`