A student designs an experiment to demonstrate the conservation of gravitational potential and kinetic energy. She drops a wooden block from rest through photo gate 2m below. If energy is conserved how fast should the block be traveling when it passes through the photo gate?

probably not if net force is zero

force is based upon mass and acceleration.the statement is not always true.

it can be explained from newton's second law of motion.

as per newton's second law of motion the rate of change of momentum is directly proportional to the applied force and takes place along the direction of force.

mathematically it can be written as -

                                              ⇒      

here   k is the proportionality constant whose value is 1.

                                                            [a is the acceleration=dv/dt]

hence we see that force not only depends on mass and acceleration but also on velocity and rate of change of mass. force f will depend on mass and acceleration only when mass is constant.

hence the statement that force is based upon mass and acceleration is false.