Asked by Christian

A girl is pulling a toy to the left and a boy is pulling the same toy to the right as shown in the image. The girl exerts a force of 3.5 N. The mass of the stuffed animal is 0.2 kg, and it is accelerating to the right 2.5 m/s2.

What is the force that the boy is exerting?
N

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Take right as positive. Newton's 2nd law: ΣF = ma = F_boy - F_girl.
So F_boy = ma + F_girl = (0.2 kg)(2.5 m/s²) + 3.5 N = 0.5 N + 3.5 N = 4.0 N (to the right).