Your groceries are in a bag with paper handles. The handles will tear off if a force greater than 50.8 N is applied to them. What is the greatest mass of groceries that can be lifted safely with this bag, given that the bag is raised with constant speed.

No promises this is right, but:

Normal force is acting up on the bag, and that is given to be a maximum of 50.8 N. To balance this force is the mg force which points strait down towards the ground. By equating mg = 50.8 and g = 9.81 then you can solve for m.

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To find the greatest mass of groceries that can be lifted safely with this bag, we need to determine the maximum force that can be exerted on the handles without tearing them off. We can then use Newton's second law of motion to relate this force to the mass of the groceries.

Step 1: Convert the force limit to Newtons
The tearing force limit of the handles is given as 50.8 N, so we don't need to convert anything here.

Step 2: Determine the maximum force exerted by the bag
Since the bag is lifted with constant speed, the upward force exerted by the person must be equal to the downward force of gravity acting on the groceries. We can find this force using the equation F = mg, where F is the force, m is the mass, and g is the acceleration due to gravity (approximately 9.8 m/s^2).

Step 3: Calculate the maximum mass of the groceries
To get the mass, rearrange the equation F = mg to solve for m:
m = F/g

Now substitute the maximum force F (50.8 N) and the acceleration due to gravity g (9.8 m/s^2) in the equation:
m = 50.8 N / 9.8 m/s^2

Calculating this gives us:
m ≈ 5.184 kg

Therefore, the greatest mass of groceries that can be lifted safely with this bag is approximately 5.184 kg.