Answer to Question #98584 in Mechanics | Relativity for Cierra Keown

Question

Can a object moving at constant speed accelerate. Explain your answer

Answer 1

According to Newton’s first law, the body keeps its speed unchanged if forces do not act on it or their vector sum is zero. And according to Newton’s second law, the force is proportional to the acceleration, but since the force is zero, then the acceleration is zero. As a result, we get that an object moving with a constant speed cannot accelerate.