What is the net force of an object in equilibrium?

Answer 1

You and I stand on opposite ends of a small car.

You are in the back, pushing it forward with a force of 100 pounds. I am in the front, pushing it backward with a force of 100 pounds.

I don't know what the "force" on the car is. Is it 200 pounds, 100 each from you and me ? Do we also have to add in the weight of the car ... another 2,000 pounds of gravity pushing it downward ? How about the reaction force of the pavement ... another 2,000 pounds pushing it upward ? I don't know.

But I do know the net force on the car ... it's zero. The two horizontal forces on it cancel each other, because they're directed in opposite directions. Same for the vertical forces. Which is why the car doesn't accelerate in any direction ... because the net force in that direction is zero.

Answer 2

You would combine the amounts of the forces acting on the single object.

Example: Two forces are acting on an object 6 N to the East and 4 N to the West

<----O------> The net force would be 2 N to the East.

If the forces are acting in many directions then you must use trigonometry or Pythagorus' Theorem to get over all force. Often plotting forces on graph paper helps if there are a few of them.

Answer 3

The net force is the vector sum of all the forces acting on an object.

For example, if a force of 3N is acting on an object along the x-axis and a force of 4N is acting on the same object along the y axis, then the net force would be 5Nacting at an angle of 53.1o above the x-axis (use vector addition to find the resulting force).

Similarly, if a force of 10N is acting on an object along the positive x-axis and a force of 9N is acting on an object along the negative x-axis, then the net force on the object would be 1N acting along the positive x-axis.

Answer 4

The net force is the vector sum of all of the separate individual forces. All of the

individual forces could be replaced by a single force, having the magnitude and

direction of the 'net' force, and the object wouldn't know the difference.

Answer 5

The answer depends on whether the forces are acting at the same point of different points.

If at the same point you can either draw up a polygon (polyhedron) representing the vector addition. Alternatively, you could select a pair (or trio) of orthogonal axes in 2 dimensional (3d) space and decompose each vector into its components along these axes. The signed addition of the vecors along each axis can be computed easily to give the 2 (or 3) resultant forces. These can be added together using vector addition.

However, if the forces act at different points on an extended object, you need to take the moments of the force into consideration. These can be calculated for various locations on the object. The moments of a force is the magnitude of the force multiplied by the vertical distance from the line of action of the force to the reference point, and the moment is either clockwise or anticlockwise.

Answer 6

The net force of an object in equilibrium is zero. This means that all forces acting on the object are balanced and there is no overall force causing the object to accelerate in any direction.

Answer 7

The net force of an object is defined as the total force that is acting on a specific object. Net force is also referred to as total force in physics.

Answer 8

Net force causes an object to accelerate, or decelerate and/or to move in a new direction.

Answer 9

A net force is the sum (vector sum) of the individual forces.

Answer 10

Zero.