Why does freely falling body have constant acceleration but body on inclined plane have constant velocity?
Actually the body on the inclined plane also has a constant acceleration. The force of gravity can be broken into two components: one perpendicular to the plane and the other along the plane. L = length of inclined plane = 28 cm = 0.28 meters T = angle of elevation = 48 degrees m = mass of block = 100 gm = 0.1 kg g = acceleration of gravity = 9.8 m/s^2 Force perpendicular = mg cos(T) Force along = mg sin(T) This is not so difficult to see. Imagine the plane is flat on the earth then T = 0 and the perpendicular force is just gravity and the force along the plane is 0 as it should be. The force perpendicular to the plane does not matter since the plane is pushing with an equal force in the opposite direction. So the force acting on the block is just: F = mg sin(T) = 0.1(9.8)sin(48) F = 0.728 N Since force is mass times acceleration, the acceleration of the block is just: a = g sin(T) = 9.8sin(48) = 7.2828 m/s^2 The time it takes to move down the plane can be found from: distance moved =
