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)

Question

Responses

the mass
the mass

zero
zero

the inverse of the mass
the inverse of the mass

the velocity
the velocity

Answer 1

In the context of a graph where the forces of the motors are plotted against their accelerations, we can use Newton's second law of motion, which states that \( F = ma \) (where \( F \) is the force, \( m \) is the mass, and \( a \) is the acceleration).

If we rearrange this equation to fit the format of a linear equation \( y = mx + b \):

• \( y \) represents the force \( F \),
• \( m \) (the slope) would be the mass \( m \) (since \( F = ma \) implies that for a constant mass, the force is linearly proportional to the acceleration),
• \( x \) represents the acceleration \( a \),
• \( b \) (the y-intercept) would be the value of the force when acceleration is zero.

When acceleration is zero, according to \( F = ma \), the force is also zero if there are no additional forces acting on the system (like friction).

Therefore, the y-intercept of this graph is:

zero