Menu
Newton's Second Law of Motion
Newton's second law basically says that the more force applied to an object, the faster it will accelerate. It also says that the more mass an object has, the more force you'll need to accelerate it. The relationship between force and acceleration is often expressed like this:
We can also use our algebra skills to rearrange this formula to find net force:
Think about pushing a shopping cart and pushing a car. If you apply the same amount of force to both, the shopping cart will zoom off, but the car won't move. So a larger mass will accelerate less if the same amount of force is applied.
A force can cause something to either speed up or slow down. This is how you can tell which will happen:
A force can cause something to either speed up or slow down. This is how you can tell which will happen: