Final answer:
The suspended ball has two main forces acting on it, gravity (weight) and tension in the string. These forces are drawn in a free-body diagram with gravity pointing downward and tension pointing upward, both equal in magnitude and opposite in direction indicating a state of rest.
Step-by-step explanation:
Forces on a Suspended Ball
To address the student's request, we will first sketch all the forces acting on a ball of mass m hanging at rest, suspended by a string, and then draw its free-body diagram.
- Sketch all forces: There are two main forces acting on the suspended ball. The first force is gravity, which pulls the ball downward and is equal to the weight of the ball (W = mg, where g is the acceleration due to gravity). The second force is tension in the string (T), which acts upward, opposing the weight of the ball.
- Free-body diagram: A free-body diagram is a representation of an object with all the forces acting upon it. For the ball, we draw a dot to represent the ball and then draw arrows to show the forces. An arrow pointing downward is labeled with 'W' for the weight, and an arrow pointing upward is labeled 'T' for the tension in the string. As the ball is at rest, these forces must be equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to result in a net force of zero.