Question 6
A force of 2 N is applied to an object of mass 500 kg. What is its acceleration?
The right answer is the one marked above.
0.004 m s−2.
a = F ÷ m = 2 ÷ 500 = 0.004 m s−2
A large mass with a small force gives a tiny acceleration — that is what a = F ÷ m says. It is not zero; the object does move, but it takes a long time to notice.
250 comes from dividing the other way round (500 ÷ 2). You can see the answer must be less than 1 simply because the mass is so much larger than the force.