The following is the distance-time table of an object in motion: Time (seconds) Distance (meters) 0 0 1 1 2 8 3 27 4 64 5 125 6 216 7 343 (a) What conclusion can you draw about the acceleration? Is it constant, increasing, decreasing, or zero? (b) What do you infer about the forces acting on the object?

Solution

(a) The distance covered by the object at any time interval is greater than any of the distances covered in previous time intervals. Therefore, the acceleration of the object is increasing.

(b) As per the second law of motion, force = mass × acceleration. Since the mass of the object remains constant, the increasing acceleration implies that the force acting on the object is increasing as well