Question

Two students are discussing what determines the direction of an object’s velocity

change arrow.

Student A says: The velocity change arrow is in the same direction as the velocity of

the object.

Student B says: The velocity change arrow is independent of the velocity of the

object.

You have the following equipment: spring scale, mass, stand, motion sensor,

stopwatch, metre stick

What kind of experiment to do to prove one of the student is wrong?

My answer: I believe student A is right such that an object thrown up will slow down due to gravity. In this direction the ball velocity is up, while acceleration is pointing down (for my coordinate system) Then the ball's velocity will point down due to acceleration pulling it down. This is why velocity change arrow depends on object's velocity

Answer 1

My Answer goes with student A , for example if a block having a mass (m)  is attached to the spring scale and the spring scale is on the stand  , Initially the block will move with a higher velocity because the retarding force ( spring force ) is less due to less extension , but as the extension in the spring increases , spring force also also increases due to which block velocity goes down and the corresponding velocity change arrow also decreases , finally block velocity becomes zero and it's corresponding or attached velocity change arrow becomes zero , which shows that velocity change arrow is the function of object velocity which means it depends on the velocity of object as object velocity decreases velocity change arrow also changes .

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