Superman throws a boulder of weight 3500 N at an adversary. What horizontal force must Superman apply to the boulder to give it a horizontal acceleration of 12.7 m/s^2?
F=?
Fnet(x)=MA(x)
I did (3500 N)(12.7 m/s^2) = 44450 N
This answer is wrong. So what's up?
So answer = 4540!
Yes physics 221 students, this answer was brought to you by my failure to complete Mastering Physics problem and ended up pressing the show answer button
May my sacrifice be beneficial to the common good.
To find the horizontal force that Superman must apply to the boulder, you correctly used the equation Fnet(x) = MA(x). However, there is one key aspect missing in the calculation that led to the wrong answer.
The equation Fnet(x) = MA(x) gives you the net force acting in the horizontal direction, which is equal to the product of the mass of the object (in this case, the boulder) and its horizontal acceleration.
In your calculation, you used the weight of the boulder (3500 N) instead of its mass. Weight is the force exerted on an object due to gravity, which can be calculated using the equation weight = mass × acceleration due to gravity. However, we need the mass of the boulder (m) in order to calculate the horizontal force.
To find the mass of the boulder, we can use the equation weight = mass × acceleration due to gravity and rearrange it to solve for mass: mass = weight ÷ acceleration due to gravity.
Let's assume the acceleration due to gravity is approximately 9.8 m/s². So, the mass of the boulder is 3500 N ÷ 9.8 m/s² = 357.14 kg (rounded to two decimal places).
Now, we can calculate the correct horizontal force by substituting the mass and the given horizontal acceleration (12.7 m/s²) into the equation:
Fnet(x) = MA(x)
Fnet(x) = (357.14 kg)(12.7 m/s²)
Calculating this gives us:
Fnet(x) ≈ 4539.57 N
Therefore, the horizontal force that Superman must apply to the boulder to give it a horizontal acceleration of 12.7 m/s² is approximately 4539.57 N.