What is the relationship between Net force and Acceleration?
To understand the relationship between net force and acceleration, let us look at two cases:
Case 1: Net force is equal to zero.
Let us say there is a force of ‘10 units’ acting on an object in the upward direction and a force of ‘10 units’ acting on it in the downward direction.
Balanced forces
As the forces cancel each other out, the forces are balanced, and the net force is zero. This means the forces are balanced and therefore the object would be stationary.
Case 2: Net force is not equal to zero.
Let us look at another object. There is a force of ’15 units’ acting on it in the upward direction, and a force of ‘20 units’ acting on it downwards.
Unbalanced forces
The forces here are unbalanced because they don’t cancel each other out. Additionally, as the downward force is more in magnitude, the net force will be ‘5 units’ downwards and thus the object will move in the downward direction.
From the above examples, it can be deduced that when the net force is zero, the state of motion of the object will not change and when the net force is not zero, its state of motion will change. In other words, when a net force is acting on an object, there is a change in its velocity. Change of velocity is nothing but acceleration. Thus, a net force will always lead to acceleration.
Whether there is a change in speed or a change in direction or if the object stops, there will be an acceleration because in each of these cases, there is a net force acting on the object.