How Does Work Affect Acceleration on an Air Track?

[msimard8]

Here is the queston.

A student in a physics lab pushed a 0.100 kg cart on an air track over a distance of 10.0 cm, doing 0.230 J of work. Calculate the acceleration of the cart.

The textbook doesn't show how to approach this problem. It is suppose to be bonus or somthing.

These are my thoughts

I am assuming there is no friction since the cart was on a air track

I converted everything to their proper units.

mass=0.100kg
w=0.0230 J
d =10.0 cm = 0.1m

I know acceleration is change of velocity/time

I need a hint at least to figure out how to solve this.

Thanks

 

[FredGarvin]

First, think of acceleration in terms of Newton's second law...

You have been given the amount of work done on the cart and the distance that work was performed. What is the definition of work? What is left to calculate from that definition, i.e. you have been given two things and there are three things in the basic definition for work.

Also, you have one too many leading zeros in the work number when you showed converting to proper units.