Hovercraft Lab Refelction

Today in Physics class we rode hovercrafts in order to better understand inertia, net force and equilibrium. The hovercraft was a large, circular wooden board with a plastic sheet covering it. In order to hover, we put a leaf-blower in a cutout in the craft. Riding the hovercraft felt pretty strange. We had to hold the extension cord into the leaf-blower and sit really close to it. The leaf-blower was really powerful and the entire hovercraft vibrated. My feet still felt like they were shaking even after I got off of the hovercraft. Riding a hovercraft is different from sledding or riding a skateboard because there is no friction acting against the hovercraft. The friction from snow or the road eventually slows down a sled or a skateboard, but hovercrafts don't have any friction to slow them down. From this experience, I can come to the conclusion that acceleration depends on whether or not there is a force force acting on an object. When the hovercraft was being started and when is was being stopped it had an accelerating velocity. The only time at which the hovercraft's velocity was constant was when it was gliding. More mass means more inertia and less mass means less inertia, therefore the tallest and heaviest person was hardest to stop and the shortest and lightest person was easiest to stop.