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Home Minds On Newton's Laws Mission NL5 Force Diagrams Help Help 9

Mission NL5 Force Diagrams

The Question

The diagrams below represent forces acting on an object. The size of the arrow represents the magnitude of the force. Which would be most consistent for the following scenario?
 
A motor cycle is moving rightward and speeding up while encountering significant air resistance.

Game Plan

Often times, success in physics demands that you have the proper approach - a good game plan. A good game plan for this question would be to:
 
  • First, identify if the forces are balanced or unbalanced; and if unbalanced, determine the direction of the unbalanced force (see Think About It section below). This will allow you to eliminate several choices from among the ten diagrams.
  • Second, use your understanding of the various force types to determine if there is a force in each direction - up, down, right, left. This requires that you have a good understanding of the different types of forces and when they are present and absent (use the link in the Hot Link section if necessary). This second step allows you to reduce the number of choices to one.

Think About It

If an object is moving to the right and speeding up, then there is a rightward acceleration. This rightward acceleration is caused by a rightward net force. As such, whatever force diagram you pick, it should be one that shows more right force than left force.

Hot Link