— What exactly does kilograms times metres per second squared mean?

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I understand that F=ma, mass is in kilograms and acceleration is metres per second squared so Newtons are just kilograms metres per second squared, but what does that mean? I can’t seem to comprehend it/really understand it intuitively. Why are we adding kilograms, metres per second squared times (or vice-versa)? I understand stuff with division, like density, because it makes sense, like with density, you’re dividing the mass over the volume occupied to see how many kilograms you have per cubic metre of the substance in question, so kg/m^3 , but I seem to have trouble understanding the multiplied quantities, like Newtons.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Lets break it down, velocity is the change of distance over time so m/s, then acceleration is the change of velocity over time or (m/s)/s or m/s^2.

Now we know that it doesn’t take any force to move something it only takes a force to accelerate something.

And the mass times the acceleration is equal to the force needed. So the dimensions of force are kg*m/s^2

What’s more, kinetic energy takes the form of kg*v^2 or kg*(m/s)^2 and the energy consumed is equal to the force over a distance so (kg*m/s^2 ) *m which is equal to the dimensions of kinetic energy.

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