a group of students places a fan cart at one end of a track. when the fan is switched on, a constant force…

a group of students places a fan cart at one end of a track. when the fan is switched on, a constant force is exerted on the cart. the greater the fans speed, the stronger the force. the students can add or remove blocks to change the carts mass. their setup is modeled below. the students switch on the fan and release the cart. they measure the time it takes to reach the other end. the first time they try this, the cart moves very fast. complete the statement. to decrease the carts acceleration, the students could dropdown the cart or dropdown the fans speed.
Answer
Explanation:
Step1: Recall Newton's second law
According to $F = ma$ (where $F$ is force, $m$ is mass and $a$ is acceleration), acceleration $a=\frac{F}{m}$.
Step2: Analyze ways to decrease acceleration
To decrease $a$, we can either increase $m$ (add mass to the cart) or decrease $F$. Since greater fan - speed means greater force, decreasing the fan's speed will decrease the force $F$ acting on the cart.
Answer:
- add mass to
- decrease