Newton's Laws - Mission NL3 Detailed Help

An upward moving elevator (or a downward moving elevator) is slowing down. Which of the following force diagrams could be representative of ...


 
Newton's First Law of Motion:
An object at rest will stay at rest; an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and direction, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.


 
Forces, when unbalanced, cause objects to accelerate. And the direction of the acceleration is the same as the direction of the extra force. Just because an object is moving to the right does not mean there is more right force than left force. Whether the right or the left force is bigger depends on whether the object is speeding up or slowing down. There must be more right force than left force if an object is moving to the right and speeding up. There must be more left force than right force if an object is moving to the right and slowing down.


 
Click the button below to play an audio file in a separate window.




 
Direction of Acceleration:
If an object is slowing down, then the direction of its acceleration is opposite the direction that the object is moving. A rightward moving object that is slowing down has a leftward acceleration. And a leftward moving object that is slowing down has a rightward acceleration.


 

Tired of Ads?
Go ad-free for 1 year