What does the equasion force= mass x accelleration mean?
This equation is not as simple as it looks; it deals with two vectors, Force and Accelleration. The complicated thing about vectors it that they have an amount (called a magnitude) and a direction — i.e. you cannot just say; “A Force of 20 Newtons”; you must, also, specify a direction… say; “Force of 20 Newtons at a direction of 270 degrees”. Also, there are really two forms of the equation: F = m x A (used when you observe an accelleration and you want to know what force caused that accelleration.) and A = F / m (used when you want to apply a force and you want to know what accelleration will be caused.) You don’t need to compute the direction of the resulting vector for either form of the equation; it is always the same as the direction of the applied vector. By the way, if you should ever study relativity, you will find that the mass in this equation gets very complicated at high speeds.
