Experiment No.

101: Newton’s Second Law of Motion

Caleb D. Jalmasco
PHYS101L/A18
GSE/1

Introduction
As indicated by Newton, an object in movement will keep on being in movement except if
an outer force affected it. This is the principle of his second law of motion or as known the
law of inertia. In this principle, a net force is required in order for an object to accelerate.
The experiment was conducted to identify the relationship between the acceleration of an
object to its mass and to the net force acting upon it.

Results and Discusion

The experiment was to observe the relationship of a cart’s acceleration to its weight. This
was seen through two (2) distinct situations: one with a steady mass and a changing net
force and the other with a changing mass and consistent net force. On part A, two trials
were conducted, each with different hanging weight. Variables held constant were; 0.5191
kg mass of the cart; and the 0.7 m distance traveled,. For the first trial, with a net force of
0.4905 N, the accepted acceleration value is 0.8619 m/s2 while the experimental value is
1.2269 m/s2. On the second trial, the net force was increased to 0.6377 N, the acceleration
was 1.0917 m/s2 (accepted value) and 1.6086 m/s2 (experimental value). It is observed
that acceleration and net force shares a direct proportional relationship to each other. On
part B, two trials were also conducted. Variables held constant for this trial were the; 0.1 kg
hanging mass; net force, 0.981 N; and the 0.7 m distance traveled. For the first trial, with a
mass of 0.5191 kg, the acceleration was 1.5845 m/s2 (accepted) and 2.4022 m/s2
(experimental). For the second trial, the mass was increased to 0.6191 kg and the
acceleration was 1.3642 m/s2 (accepted) and 1.6894 m/s2 (experimental). With this part,
the acceleration and mass shows an inverse proportionality relationship with each other.
Different factors affect the motion of an object, as for the experiment, mass and net force.
From the results of the experiment, increasing the net force applied to an object results in
an increase to acceleration or a faster movement. Part B then shows that with bigger mass
results in a decrease in acceleration or a slower movement of the object.

Conclusion
The objectives of the experiment were met and Newton’s second law was observed. The
experiment then verifies that net force and acceleration is directly proportional. Also
verified was that mass and acceleration has an inverse proportionality relationship.