Question

Two shopping carts are pushed with the same amount of force. However, one shopping cart has a greater mass than the other.How does the mass of the shopping carts affect their acceleration?

A. The shopping cart with the most mass will accelerate more than the shopping cart with the least mass when the same force is applied.
B. Both shopping carts will accelerate at the same rate, since it is force and not mass that determines acceleration rate.
C. The shopping cart with the most mass will accelerate less than the shopping cart with the least mass when the same force is applied.

@Imtiaz7

Answer 1

You can figure this out from Newton's Second Law, F=ma, or if you rearrange it, a=F/m.

If you look at the second equation, you can see that the acceleration is proportional to the force (as F increases, a increases too), but is inversely proportional to the mass (as m increases, a decreases). This makes sense - if you push harder, an object will accelerate faster, but if you apply the same force to a bigger object, it will accelerate more slowly.

Here we're dealing with the same force, but different masses. Based on what I just said, you can already see that the more massive shopping cart will accelerate more slowly compared to the less massive one. This makes C your answer!

(PS this is also a Physics question - you might have more luck getting a quick answer if you post it in the Physics section!)