During his observations, Newton noticed that there was a relationship between acceleration, force and mass. For example, he saw that different objects accelerated at different rates. He determined that the difference in acceleration would vary depending on two things: the amount of force that was acting on the object and the mass of the accelerating object. If you push harder on an object (more force), you’ll get more acceleration - sometimes. Imagine kicking a soccer ball and a large rock with the same amount of force. Clearly the mass of the object has something to do with the acceleration also! This is common sense, and we don’t even consider kicking a soccer ball sized stone. Since the rock has more mass, it has greater inertia, which means more resistance to a change in its motion.
This explanation of Newton’s second law of motion is more simply expressed in the following equation:
Newton's Second Law
Force = Mass × Accelertation
or
Acceleration = Force ÷ Mass
Acceleration
What two factors does acceleration depend on?
