Question

Several motorboats with the same mass are used in an experiment. The forces of the different motors versus their accelerations are graphed. What is the y-intercept of this graph? (1 point)
Responses

the inverse of the mass
the inverse of the mass

zero
zero

the mass
the mass

the velocity

Answers

GPT-4o mini
In a graph of the force of the motors (y-axis) versus their accelerations (x-axis), according to Newton's second law of motion, the relationship is given by the equation:

\[ F = ma \]

where:
- \( F \) is the force,
- \( m \) is the mass of the motorboat,
- \( a \) is the acceleration.

If we rearrange this equation to match the form \( y = mx + b \), we have:

\[ F = ma + 0 \]

Here, \( F \) (force) is the dependent variable (y-axis), \( a \) (acceleration) is the independent variable (x-axis), \( m \) (mass) is the slope of the line, and the term \( 0 \) indicates that there is no constant term subtracted from the force.

Thus, the y-intercept of the graph, which corresponds to the value of \( F \) when \( a = 0 \), is **zero**.

So the correct response is:

**zero**