Question

Newton’s second law of motion gives a measurement of?
A: Inertia
B: Momentum
C: Force
D: acceleration

Answer 1

Hint: Newton’s laws of motions are the fundamental laws which are used in mechanics to solve the problem. Along with the laws, the famous three Newton’s equations of motions are widely used throughout physics and mathematical physics. There are three laws of Newton which we can discuss.

Complete step by step answer:
First law of Newton’s says that if a body is at rest, it will remain at rest, if the body is in motion it will remain in motion, until and unless an external force acts on it. So, this law explains inertia. So, option (A) is incorrect.
None of the laws gives us anything about acceleration, which is the rate of change of velocity and can be easily found out by taking the ratio of the change in velocity to the time taken to do the same, so, the option (D) is incorrect.
Newton’s second law states that the rate of change of momentum is directly proportional to the applied force. It does not talk about momentum but about its rate of change, that is the change in momentum divided by the time taken to be the same. In other words it says, force acting on the body is equal to the product of the mass of the body with the acceleration. So, option (B) is not correct and the correct option thus, is (C)

So, the correct answer is “Option C”.

Note:
Newton’s third law also talks about force but it reveals the nature of the force and not anything about its origin. According to the third law forces always occur in pairs and a single force does not exist at all.
All the three laws define the motion of the body qualitatively and quantitatively.
The second law talks about external force and not the internal force.