Question

Anna got fed up and decided to put some of her classmates in a big box. She shoved Riley, Justin, and Paul into the box and taped it shut. Anna couldn’t overcome the force of friction by herself, so she asked some classmates to help push the box out the door. The force of friction of the floor on the box was 400 N. If Anna and her classmates can each shove with a force of 32 N, how many students would it take to make the box start moving out the door?

Answer 1

Answer:

13

Explanation:

Total force of friction between the box and the floor = 400 N

Force each student can apply = 32 N

Let the number of students required be x.

So, students required to make the box start moving

= 400 N < 32xN

= 400N/32N < x

= 12.5 < x

So, more than 12.5 students will be required. Since 12.5 students is not physically possible, so we will take the nearest whole number that is greater than 12.5, i.e, 13. So, 13 students will be required to shove the box.