Question

Michael and Andrew are pushing a desk across the room. To be funny, Michael decides to push against Andrew instead of with him. Michael can push with a force of 30 N. Andrew can only push with a force of 28 N. In which direction will the desk move?

Answer 1

towards Andrew

Step-by-step explanation:

The direction in which the desk will move would be towards Andrew.

This is a simple case of resultant force. If both Michael and Andrew had pushed the desk together across the classroom, the resultant force would have been the addition of their individual's applied forces - neglecting any other extraneous forces. However, since they decided to push against each other, the resultant force would the subtraction of their individual forces and the desk will move towards the person with who applied the lower forces out of the two.

Since Michael applied force was 30 N and that of Andrew was 28 N, the resultant force would therefore be 2 N in the direction of Andrew. In other words, the desk would move towards Andrew.