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You are performing a physics experiment in the school gym. Your experiment uses two objects: a bowling ball and a basketball. These are the same size and shape, but the bowling ball is much heavier than the basketball. You take the balls to one side of the gym. Each ball starts off standing still. You then roll the balls towards the other side of the gym, applying the same amount of force to each ball. Assuming the gym floor is frictionless, conclude which ball will reach the far side of the gym first. Justify your answer using Newton's Second Law of motion.

Question

You are performing a physics experiment in the school gym. Your experiment uses two objects: a bowling ball and a basketball. These are the same size and shape, but the bowling ball is much heavier than the basketball. You take the balls to one side of the gym. Each ball starts off standing still. You then roll the balls towards the other side of the gym, applying the same amount of force to each ball. Assuming the gym floor is frictionless, conclude which ball will reach the far side of the gym first. Justify your answer using Newton's Second Law of motion.

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Solution

According to Newton's Second Law of Motion, the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass. This law is usually expressed with the formula F = ma, where F is the force applied, m is the mass of the object, and a is its acceleration.

In this experiment, the same force is applied to both the bowling ball and the basketball. However, the bowling ball has a greater mass than the basketball. Because the force is the same but the mass is greater for the bowling ball, the acceleration (a = F/m) will be less for the bowling ball than for the basketball.

Therefore, with a lower acceleration, the bowling ball will take more time to reach the other side of the gym than the basketball, assuming the gym floor is frictionless. So, the basketball will reach the far side of the gym first.

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