Question

John is carrying a shovelful of snow. The center of mass of the 3.00 kg of snow he is holding is 15.0 cm from the end of the shovel. He is pushing down on the opposite end of the shovel with one hand and holding it up 30.0 cm from that end with his other hand. Ignore the mass of the shovel. Sarah says that his hand pushing down on the shovel must be exerting a greater force than the hand pushing up. James says it is just the reverse. Which one, if either, is correct?

Answer 1

Answer:

James is correct here as the force of hand pushing upwards is always more than the force of hand pushing down

Explanation:

Here we know that one hand is pushing up at some distance midway while other hand is balancing the weight by applying a force downwards

so here we can say

Upwards force = downwards Force + weight of snow

while if we find the other force which is acting downwards

then for that force we can say that net torque must be balanced

so here we have

$F_{down} L_1 = W_{snow} L_2$

so here we have

$F_{down} = \frac{L_2}{L_1} (W_{snow})$

so here we can say that upward force by which we push up is always more than the downwards force