wooden box weighing 271 N is pushed across the floor by a workman who exerts a horizontal force of 144 N. If the force of friction between the box and the floor is 28 N, what is the acceleration (in meters/second^2) of the box?

To find the acceleration of the box, we need to apply Newton's second law of motion, which states that the net force acting on an object is equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration. The formula for this law can be written as:

Fnet = m * a

In this case, the net force acting on the box is the difference between the applied force and the force of friction:

Fnet = Fa - Ff

Let's substitute the given values into the equation. The applied force (Fa) is 144 N, and the force of friction (Ff) is 28 N. Therefore:

Fnet = 144 N - 28 N
Fnet = 116 N

Now, we can rearrange the equation to solve for acceleration (a):

a = Fnet / m

However, we are not given the mass of the box. Instead, we are given its weight, which is the force of gravity acting on it. The weight (W) is related to mass (m) by the equation:

W = m * g

where g is the acceleration due to gravity. In this case, we can assume that g ≈ 9.8 m/s^2.

Let's rearrange the equation for weight to find the mass:

m = W / g

Substituting the given weight of 271 N and the acceleration due to gravity of 9.8 m/s^2:

m = 271 N / 9.8 m/s^2
m ≈ 27.75 kg

Now we can substitute the values of Fnet and the mass (m) into the equation to find the acceleration (a):

a = Fnet / m
a = 116 N / 27.75 kg
a ≈ 4.18 m/s^2

Therefore, the acceleration of the box is approximately 4.18 meters per second squared.