5. What is the relationship (inverse, proportional, equal, squared, et cetera) between your object system's acceleration and the net force acting on it? How do you know? \( \qquad \) \( \qquad \) \( \qquad \)

In the realm of classical mechanics, particularly Newton's second law, acceleration and net force have a direct relationship: they are proportional to each other. This means that as the net force acting on an object increases, its acceleration increases as well, provided the mass of the object remains constant. Formally, this can be expressed as \( F = ma \), where \( F \) is the net force, \( m \) is the mass, and \( a \) is the acceleration. You can easily visualize this relationship through experiments. For example, if you push a toy car with varying amounts of force, you will observe that greater pushes result in the car speeding up more quickly. This hands-on observation confirms the theoretical foundation – the more force you apply, the faster the acceleration of the car!