Question

Chang sees the following formula on a website about Newton’s second law.

a = Sigma F over m.

What does the symbol F in the formula indicate that Chang needs to do?

He needs to find the net force acting on the object in a direction.
He needs to use only forces acting in the direction of motion.
He needs to combine the horizontal and vertical forces.
He needs to multiply the horizontal and vertical forces.

Answer 1

"He needs to find the net force acting on the object in a direction."

ΣF means the vector sum of all forces (or the sum of components in the chosen direction), not multiplication.