Questions: A lab student applies a force to an air puck equal to that shown in the figure at the right. If the mass of the puck is m=3.5 kg and its initial velocity is vi=0 m / s, find the puck's final velocity. (Hint: you can assume there is no friction acting on the puck)

Solution Steps

We need to find the final velocity of an air puck given its mass, initial velocity, and the force applied to it. The mass of the puck is \( m = 3.5 \, \text{kg} \) and the initial velocity is \( v_i = 0 \, \text{m/s} \). We assume there is no friction acting on the puck.

Newton's second law states that the force applied to an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its acceleration: \[ F = m \cdot a \]

To find the acceleration, we rearrange the equation: \[ a = \frac{F}{m} \]

Since the initial velocity \( v_i = 0 \, \text{m/s} \), we can use the kinematic equation to find the final velocity \( v_f \): \[ v_f = v_i + a \cdot t \]

If the force applied is not constant, we need to integrate the force over time to find the change in velocity. However, without the specific force-time function, we assume a constant force for simplicity.

Assuming a constant force \( F \) over a time \( t \), the final velocity can be calculated as: \[ v_f = \frac{F \cdot t}{m} \]

Final Answer