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Home Minds On Newton's Laws Mission NL2 Balanced Forces and the State of Motion Help Help 4

Mission NL2 Balanced Forces and the State of Motion

The Question

The forces acting upon an object are BALANCED. Therefore, one can be absolutely certain that the object ...

Physics Rules

Newton's First Law of Motion:
An object at rest will stay at rest; an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and direction, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Minds On Time

This question requires that you put your thinking cap on. Read (even re-read) Newton's first law and reflect on what it is saying about objects for which the individual forces are balanced. One of two things can be said about such objects: either they are stationary or they are moving with an unchanging (i.e., constant) speed and direction. One cannot say for certain that the object is at rest or if it is moving with unchanging speed and direction. But one knows positively that whatever state of motion the object is in, it will maintain that state of motion. Now look through the choices given and select those choices that are consistent with an object maintaining its state of motion.

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