Suppose a man is sitting on a chair and exerting 100 N of force downward, while a spring beneath the chair exerts 150 N of force upward. If you assign a negative value to the downward force, what is the net force of this system?
To find the net force of the system, we need to consider both the downward force exerted by the man and the upward force exerted by the spring. Since the downward force is assigned a negative value, we'll consider it as -100 N, and the upward force exerted by the spring as +150 N.
To calculate the net force, we need to add these two forces together. Since they have opposite directions, we'll subtract the magnitudes of the forces.
Net Force = (Force exerted by the spring) + (Force exerted by the man)
= +150 N + (-100 N)
= 150 N - 100 N
= 50 N
Therefore, the net force of this system is 50 N in the upward direction.