Effects of Mass on the Braking Distance of a Bicycle Report
I believe as the mass of the bicycle increases so does the breaking distance. If we triple the mass of the load on the bicycle then the final breaking distance increases three times the initial distance. I am expecting this to happen since from Newton’s second law of motion the rate of impulse change is directly proportional to the external force acting on the body (Bueche 34). This external force which is the breaking force is commensurate to the product of mass and acceleration which eventually halts the body to a rest after a given distance d, and as such, work is done on the body. The work done is meant to counter the kinetic energy of the bicycle. The kinetic energy is factor of the mass and the velocity of the bicycle creating a direct proportionality between the mass of the bicycle and the breaking distance. Basing on the Newton’s 2nd law of motion I think that if a graph is plotted of breaking distance against the mass then a straight line graph is expected portraying a direct proportion between the two variables (Bueche 34)
