An airplane has a mass of 2.04 × 104 kg and takes off under the influence of a constant net force of 2.18 × 104 N. What is the net force that acts on the plane's 86.0-kg pilot?
To find the net force acting on the pilot, we need to use Newton's second law of motion, which states that the net force acting on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its acceleration. We can rearrange this equation to solve for the net force as follows:
Net force = mass × acceleration
Since the pilot is in the same airplane as the 2.04 × 10^4 kg mass, we can assume that the acceleration of the pilot is the same as the acceleration of the airplane. Thus, we need to calculate the acceleration of the airplane first.
The acceleration of the airplane can be found using Newton's second law:
Net force = mass × acceleration
Rearranging the equation to solve for acceleration:
Acceleration = Net force / mass
Substituting the given values:
Acceleration = (2.18 × 10^4 N) / (2.04 × 10^4 kg)
Acceleration ≈ 1.0686 m/s²
Now that we have the acceleration of the airplane, we can find the net force acting on the pilot using the same equation:
Net force = mass × acceleration
Substituting the given mass of the pilot:
Net force = (86.0 kg) × (1.0686 m/s²)
Net force ≈ 91.87 N
Therefore, the net force that acts on the plane's 86.0-kg pilot is approximately 91.87 N.