Question

Which method will correctly determine whether the forces on an object are balanced or unbalanced?

Answer 1

Really none of these are all bad ways to determine which one it is but if you maybe add the forces in the horizontal and vertical directions separately might work.

Answer 2

For this case, the first thing you should do is define a reference system.

Once the system is defined, we must follow the following steps:

1) Do the sum of forces in a horizontal direction

2) Do the sum of forces in vertical direction

The forces will be balanced if for each direction the net force is equal to zero.

The forces will be unbalanced if for each direction the net force is nonzero.

Answer:

Add the forces in the horizontal and vertical directions separately.