Question

A crane is lowering a 250 kg motorcycle with a cable that has a tension of 3000 N. If we defineupward as the positive direction, what is the motorcycle acceleration?

Answer 1

The tension acting in the cable can be given as,

$T=ma$

Plug in the known values,

$\begin{gathered} 3000\text{ N=(250 kg)a} \\ a=\frac{3000\text{ N}}{250\text{ kg}}(\frac{1kgm/s^2}{1\text{ N}}) \\ =12m/s^2 \end{gathered}$

Thus, the acceleration of motorcycle is 12 m/s2.