Question

in a game of tug-of-war, a rope is pulled by a force of 182 N to the right and by a force of 110 N to the left. What is the magnitude and direction of the net horizontal force on the rope?

Answer 1

72N to the right. Set your axis so right is positive so its 182-110=+72N +=right

Answer 2

tex]\sum F=72N[/tex]

Step-by-step explanation:

We assume that right side is positive, and left side is negative, which is the normal convention. Then, to calculate the net force applied on the rope, we use Newton's second law:
`\sum F=ma`. In words, the net force is the sum of all forces that are being applied, in this case, those forces are:

`\sum F= +182N-110N`

Therefore, the net force is the difference between forces, because they are being applied in opposite directions:

`\sum F= +182N-110N=72N`

This result means that the movement is to the right-positive side, basically, right side team wins.