Question

A player uses a hockey stick to push a puck at a constant velocity across the ice. The weight of the puck is 1.70 N. The coefficient of friction is 0.0600. With what force must the player push the puck so that his force just equals the frictional force?

Answer 1

In the system described above we will have four forces that is acting on the puck. These are the weight, the normal force, the frictional force, and the force applied by the player. To determine the force applied by the player, we need to calculate first for the frictional force which is equal to the product of the coefficient of friction and the normal force. We do as follows:

Summation of forces in the y-direction:
W = Fn
Fn = 1.70 N

Summation of force in the x-direction
F = Fr = 0.06Fn
F = 0.06 (1.70) = 0.102 N