Question

You push on a desk with a force of 150 N to the right. Your friend pushes on the same desk with a force of 50 N to the left . What is the net force?

Answer 1

The net force is 100 N to the right.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve this problem, we simply add together the forces. Since we know that there is a greater force to the right, we will designate this as the positive direction and the left as the negative direction.

To find the net force, let's add together the two forces we are given using our new positive/negative designations:

+150 N right - 50 N left

Now, we just perform simple subtraction to get:

100 N right

Therefore, the answer is that the net force is 100 N to the right.

Hope this helps!