Question

Two forces act concurrently on an object. Their resultant force has the largest magnitude when the angle between the forces is.

Answer 1

The resultant force of two vectors acting on the same point is greatest when the angle between them is 0 degrees, meaning they are in the same direction.

Step-by-step explanation:

When two vectors act on the same point, the resultant force will have the largest magnitude when the angle between the vectors is 0 degrees. This means that the vectors are acting in the exact same direction, and the magnitude of the resultant is simply the sum of the individual forces. When looking at the forces from a free-body diagram or applying the Pythagorean theorem, it's clear that if the forces are acting at any other angle, the resultant will have a smaller magnitude due to the vector addition process where components are taken into consideration.

The misconception regarding Newton's third law, stating that the magnitude of the force on each object is the same if they have different masses, is only partly related to the question. This law refers to forces in interaction pairs and does not directly affect the answer to the question regarding the angle for maximum resultant force. Finally, applying forces in the same direction will lead to the maximum sum of forces, which in terms of motion, translates to the maximum net force and thus the greatest potential acceleration of the object according to Newton's second law.

Answer 2

If the two forces are acting simultaneously on the body, then vector addition will supply us with the resultant force. Note that when the two forces are acting directly opposite each other, we expect the resultant to be smallest, and conversely, when they are acting in exactly the same direction, they will exert the greatest resultant force (simply the sum of the two force magnitudes).