Question

A ball moves along a table at a constant velocity and then rolls off the edge of the table. The forces that should be included in a free body diagram for the ball as it falls to the ground are: gravity friction force from table normal force from table force of fall

Answer 1

Gravity

Step-by-step explanation:

When the ball is falling to the ground, it is already detached from the table, so the table does not exert any force on it.

Gravity is always present, therefore it is acting on the ball (acting downward), so it must be included into the free-body diagram. Apart from that, there are no other forces acting on the ball (if we neglect air resistance, which is negligible, and it is not mentioned in the options given), therefore the only force which has to be included in the diagram is gravity.