Question

You slide down a steep slide at an amusement park. The slide is set up so that you are sitting on a blanket so that only the blanket is in contact with the slide. As you start to speed up, you get anxious about how fast you are going and push down with your hands on the blanket. What happens as you increase the force of your hands on the blanket?

a.Your acceleration decreases, but never goes to zero.
b. Your acceleration increases.
c. Your acceleration decreases and can go to zero if you push hard enough.
d. Your acceleration does not change.

Answer 1

a. Your acceleration decreases, but never goes to zero.

Step-by-step explanation:

Pushing down with hands on the blanket increases the normal force between the soil and the blanket and, therefore, increases the friction force. Nonetheless, the component of the gravity force parallel to the direction of the slide is higher than friction force and consequently, the acceleration decreases but never goes to zero.