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Often times, success in physics demands that you have the proper approach - a good game plan. A good game plan for this question would be to:
- First, identify if the forces are balanced or unbalanced; and if unbalanced, determine the direction of the unbalanced force (see Think About It section below). This will allow you to eliminate several choices from among the ten diagrams.
- Second, use your understanding of the various force types to determine if there is a force in each direction - up, down, right, left. This requires that you have a good understanding of the different types of forces and when they are present and absent (use the link in the Hot Link section if necessary). This second step allows you to reduce the number of choices to one.
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A common misconception among physics students is the belief that a downward moving object must be experiencing a downward force. But don't be fooled! If an object is moving down and speeding up then there must be more down force than up force acting upon it. However, if an object is moving down and slowing down then there must be more up force than down force acting upon it. And if an object is moving down with a constant speed then there must be the same amount of up force as down force acting upon it.
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