Suppose 25 children who weigh the same are playing a game of tug of war, five children pull with 10 newtons of force, while ten children pull with 15 newtons of force in the opposite direction. How can one determine the net force on the rope?
A: the forces are in opposite directions, so the newtons can be subtracted
B: the forces are in opposite directions, so the newtons can be divided
C: the forces are in the same direction, so the newtons can be added
D: the forces are in the same direction, so the newtons can be multiplied
A: the forces are in opposite directions, so the newtons can be subtracted
To determine the net force on the rope, you need to consider the direction and magnitude of the forces acting on it.
In this scenario, five children pull with 10 newtons of force in one direction, and ten children pull with 15 newtons of force in the opposite direction. Since the forces are acting in opposite directions, you need to subtract them to find the net force.
Option A: Subtraction - Subtracting the force of 15 newtons (opposite direction) from the force of 10 newtons (initial direction), we can find the net force on the rope.
So, the correct answer is A: the forces are in opposite directions, so the newtons can be subtracted.
The correct answer is A: the forces are in opposite directions, so the newtons can be subtracted.
To determine the net force on the rope, we need to consider the direction and magnitude of the forces. The five children pulling with 10 newtons of force are pulling in one direction, while the ten children pulling with 15 newtons of force are pulling in the opposite direction.
Since the forces are in opposite directions, we can subtract the force exerted by the ten children from the force exerted by the five children to determine the net force on the rope. In this case, the net force would be 10 newtons (10 N - 15 N = -5 N, but we consider the magnitude in this case).