An object with a mass of 50 kg is being dragged along a horizontal floor by a horizontal force of 30 N. If the friction force opposing the motion is a steady 20 N, what is the acceleration of the body
sum(F) = m*a
where sum(F) is the sum of the forces, m is mass, and a is acceleration:
30 - 20 = 50*a
To find the acceleration of the object, we can apply Newton's second law of motion, which states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force applied on it and inversely proportional to its mass. Mathematically, this can be expressed as:
a = F_net / m
where:
a is the acceleration,
F_net is the net force,
m is the mass of the object.
In this case, the net force can be calculated by subtracting the friction force from the applied force:
F_net = F_applied - F_friction.
Given that the applied force (F_applied) is 30 N and the friction force (F_friction) is 20 N, we can substitute these values into the equation:
F_net = 30 N - 20 N
= 10 N.
Now, we can substitute the values of F_net and the mass (m = 50 kg) into the equation for acceleration:
a = F_net / m
= 10 N / 50 kg
= 0.2 m/s^2.
Therefore, the acceleration of the object is 0.2 m/s^2.