High School

A 20 kg rock falls from the sky with a force of 196 Newtons. What is the rock's acceleration?

[tex]\text{m/s}^2[/tex]

Answer :

To find the rock's acceleration, we can use Newton's second law of motion, which states that force is equal to mass times acceleration. The formula is:

[tex]\[ F = ma \][/tex]

Where:
- [tex]\( F \)[/tex] is the force applied (in Newtons),
- [tex]\( m \)[/tex] is the mass of the object (in kilograms),
- [tex]\( a \)[/tex] is the acceleration (in meters per second squared, m/s²).

In this problem, we are given:
- The mass [tex]\( m \)[/tex] of the rock is 20 kg,
- The force [tex]\( F \)[/tex] applied to the rock is 196 Newtons.

We need to find the acceleration [tex]\( a \)[/tex] of the rock. To do this, we can rearrange the formula to solve for acceleration:

[tex]\[ a = \frac{F}{m} \][/tex]

Now, plug in the given values:

[tex]\[ a = \frac{196 \, \text{N}}{20 \, \text{kg}} \][/tex]

By performing the division, you obtain:

[tex]\[ a = 9.8 \, \text{m/s}^2 \][/tex]

Therefore, the rock's acceleration is [tex]\( 9.8 \, \text{m/s}^2 \)[/tex].