A trolley is pulled horizontally by a constant force along a horizontal surface. Neglect friction. If the
magnitude of the force remains constant, and we add more matter (like a brick) to the trolley, what
happens to the acceleration?

Question

A trolley is pulled horizontally by a constant force along a horizontal surface. Neglect friction. If the 
magnitude of the force remains constant, and we add more matter (like a brick) to the trolley, what 
happens to the acceleration?

stormfire1 · Answer

Force = mass (times) acceleration
If you increase the mass and force is to remain the same, the acceleration must decrease.

anonymous · Answer

wait..what do they mean by "neglect friction"?

stormfire1 · Answer

Friction opposes motion and is something you'll learn about later.  In earlier courses, it's ignored just to keep things simpler.

anonymous · Answer

i know what friction is.. i mean "NEGLECT"

across · Answer

If throw a rock across a room, there are many forces acting on this rock, such as gravity and air friction.

If you want to model this rock's path, you can ignore air friction, since it's practically negligible for this purpose.

However, if you want to model the path of a meteorite entering the earth's atmosphere, you can't neglect air friction. Heck, the meteorite catches on fire because of it!

But as stormfire mentioned, you'll learn more about this later.

across · Answer

"Neglect" is a fancy word for "ignore."

anonymous · Answer

really? then its "ignore friction"?  anyway, i have to go THANKS ALOOOOOT STORMFIRE FOR YOU HELP! and across ^_^