When considering the relationship between an object's mass and its kinetic energy (KE) while assuming a constant velocity, the relevant equation is the kinetic energy formula:
\[ KE = \frac{1}{2}mv^2 \]
In this equation:
- \( KE \) is the kinetic energy,
- \( m \) is the mass,
- \( v \) is the velocity.
Since the velocity is constant, the kinetic energy is directly proportional to the mass of the object. This means that, if you were to plot a graph with mass on the x-axis and kinetic energy on the y-axis, you would see a linear relationship, which suggests that as the mass increases, the kinetic energy also increases.
This relationship can be depicted as a straight line passing through the origin (0,0), indicating that if the mass is zero, the kinetic energy is also zero. Therefore, the graph that best represents this relationship is a linear graph with a positive slope.
In summary, the best graph to show the relationship between an object's mass and its kinetic energy at constant velocity is a straight line that starts at the origin and rises as mass increases.
1 answer