Question

A 2-kg box sits on a horizontal table. the force of friction between the box and the table is 10 n. the box is pushed to the right with an applied horizontal force of 20 n. what is the acceleration of the box?

Answer 1

By Newton's 2nd law of motion, F = ma, where F is force, m is mass, and a is acceleration.

Rearranging this equation to find acceleration would give us:
a = F/m

The horizontal force to the right is 10N, because the box is pushed to the right with a force of 20N, and the friction force of 10N opposes that, so:
20N - 10N = 10N

The mass is 2kg.

Putting these values into the equation gives us:
a = F/m
= 10/2
= 5ms^-2

The acceleration of the box is 5ms^-2