Question

Two upwards forces act: one of 34N which is 3.5m to the left of the axle, the other is 25N and is 2.6m to the right of the axle. There is also a 10N force to the left which is 0.80m below the axle.

Answer 1

See explanation below

Step-by-step explanation:

In this case, you want to know if you put an object between these forces, which direction would go.

To know this, we need to calculate the moment of an object, which is defined as the product of a force and it's distance. In other words:

M = F * d (1)

And, in order to reach equilibrium the force will exert a direction in clockwise or anticlosewise, and these moments, should be even:

anticlockwise moment = clockwise moment.

The clockwise would be the forces to the right, and anticlock would the only force to the left of the axle.

Clockwise moment = (10 * 0.8) + (25 * 2.6) = 73 Ns

Anticlockwise moment = 34 * 3.5 = 119 Ns.

As we can see, the moment in the anticlockwise is higher than the actual clockwise moment, therefore, we can assume that the object will move anticlockwise, or simply move to the left.

Hope this helps