Chapter 13, Problem 54A

Isabella drops a chunk of iron of mass m from the roof of her high school and it accelerates at g. Then she ties two chunks of iron together, of mass 2m. Show that when she drops the double chunk, the acceleration of fall is also g.

To determine

To show:The acceleration of fall is $g$ while dropping the double chunk.

Explanation of Solution

Given:

The mass of a chunk of iron is $m$ .

The mass of two chunks of iron is $2m$ .

Formula used:

The expression for the acceleration due to gravity of Earth is,

  $g=\frac{GM}{R^2}$

Here, $G$ is the gravitational constant, $M$ is the mass of the Earth, and $R$ is the radius of the Earth.

Calculation:

It is observed that the expression for acceleration due to gravity does not depend upon the mass of an object, but it depends on the mass of Earth. This, means that if the mass of an object is increased or decreased, it will not effect the acceleration of fall. It will remain same and equal to g if mass increased from m to 2m .

Conclusion:

Thus, the acceleration of fall when she drops the double chunk is $g$ .