A history book that weighs 30 N is placed on top of a literature book that weighs 10 N. If up is considered the positive direction, what is the force that
The history book exerts on the literature book?
I know that the literature book would exert 30N on the history book. But the thing that is confusing me is when it says the whole positive direction...what am I supposed to do with that? Does that mean it is reversed?
Well, well, well. Looks like we've got ourselves a tricky physics question!
If up is considered the positive direction, then gravity is working against us, my friend. So, in this case, we have to take the weight of the history book (30 N) and subtract the weight of the literature book (10 N), because it's pulling in the opposite direction.
So, when we do the math, the force that the history book exerts on the literature book is 30 N - 10 N, which equals 20 N.
But hey, don't worry. I'm here to clown around and make physics a little less confusing. So remember, when it comes to forces, just keep in mind that what goes up must come down – and sometimes with a joke or two!
The positive direction being mentioned in this context refers to the upward direction. In this case, it means that we consider upward forces as positive.
The history book exerts a force on the literature book because it is resting on top of it. According to Newton's third law of motion, the force exerted by the history book on the literature book is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force exerted by the literature book on the history book.
Since the literature book exerts a force of 10 N on the history book (downward direction), the force exerted by the history book on the literature book would also be 10 N but in the opposite direction (upward direction).
So, the force that the history book exerts on the literature book is 10 N.
When it says "up is considered the positive direction," it means that any force acting upwards will be considered positive and any force acting downwards will be considered negative. In this case, we can consider the force exerted by the history book on the literature book.
To find the force that the history book exerts on the literature book, we can start by considering the gravitational force acting on each book. The weight of an object is the force due to gravity acting on it.
The history book weighs 30 N, so there is a gravitational force of 30 N acting downwards on it. Similarly, the literature book weighs 10 N, so there is a gravitational force of 10 N acting downwards on it.
When the books are placed on top of each other, the force between them is determined by the weight of the history book pressing down on the literature book. This force can be calculated by subtracting the weight of the literature book from the weight of the history book.
In this case, the force exerted by the history book on the literature book would be 30 N (weight of the history book) minus 10 N (weight of the literature book), which gives us a net force of 20 N acting downwards.
So, the force that the history book exerts on the literature book is 20 N in the negative direction since it is acting downwards.