The drawing shows a wire tooth brace used by orthodontists. The topmost tooth is protruding slightly, and the tension in the wire exerts two forces and ' on this tooth in order to bring it back into alignment. If the forces have the same magnitude of 15.0 N, what is the magnitude of the net force exerted on the tooth by these forces?

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To find the magnitude of the net force exerted on the tooth by the two forces, we need to apply vector addition. Since the two forces have the same magnitude of 15.0 N and are acting in opposite directions, we can represent them as vectors pointing in opposite directions.

Let's denote the two forces as F1 and F2, with F1 pointing upwards and F2 pointing downwards.

To determine the net force, we need to find the sum of these two forces. Since they are collinear and point in opposite directions, we can subtract the magnitude of one force from the other.

F_net = |F1| - |F2|

Given that the magnitude of each force is 15.0 N, we can substitute this value into the equation:

F_net = 15.0 N - 15.0 N
F_net = 0 N

Therefore, the net force exerted on the tooth by these two forces is zero.