PHYSICS IB TENSION

The one farthest from the direction of travel.

Find that CAPS LOCK key!

The cat is batting it all around the living room

If you had two blocks, each with mass m, connected by a spring and the first mass was being pulled by a string or by a hand, eventually both masses would have the acceleration a. F = ma is the relevant equation. Therefore the string or hand pulling the first block would have to supply the force 2ma, whereas the spring between the blocks would only have to supply the lesser force ma to accelerate the 2nd block. This suggests that in a line of several blocks connected with springs, all under acceleration a, the force would become smaller and smaller as one moved towards the rear because each subsequent spring would have less mass to keep at acceleration a.