Question

A box with a weight of 25N sits on the floor. What is the maximum force that could be applied horizontally on the box before it would start to accelerate if the coefficient of friction is 0.40?

Answer 1

So, we know that The box isn't moving at all. I'm assuming the coefficient they gave you is for static friction. We know that with static friction, the value that we calculate is a maximum value that represents the force we'd have to apply before an object starts moving!

We also know that the box isn't moving vertically. That means that its Y forces must be cancelling out, which means its weight force and its normal force must be equal to each other!

Now we can plug in these values into our static friction equation!

`F_s` ≤
`F_N` * μ
`_s`

`F_s` ≤ (25N) (0.40)

`F_s = 10`

Therefore your force that you'd need to apply is 10N!