To determine how much less force a person would apply to their joints when walking on Mars compared to Earth, we can calculate the ratio of gravitational accelerations.
The gravitational acceleration on Earth (g_E) is 9.8 m/s², and on Mars (g_M), it is 3.7 m/s².
The ratio of the gravitational forces can be calculated as follows:
\[ \text{Force on Earth} \propto g_E \ \text{Force on Mars} \propto g_M \]
The ratio of force exerted on Mars to that on Earth is given by:
\[ \frac{g_M}{g_E} = \frac{3.7}{9.8} \]
Calculating the ratio:
\[ \frac{3.7}{9.8} \approx 0.3786 \]
This means that on Mars, a person experiences about 37.86% of the force they would experience on Earth.
To find how much less force is applied, we take the inverse of this ratio:
\[ \text{Factor of reduction in force} = \frac{1}{0.3786} \approx 2.64 \]
Therefore, the force applied to joints when walking on Mars is approximately 2.6 times less than on Earth.
The correct response is: 2.6 times less force.