Question

A box of Cheerios and a box of Wheaties are accelerated accross a horizontal force vector F applied to the Cheerios box. THe magnitude of the frictional force on the Cheerios box is 2 N and the magnitude of the frictional force on the Wheaties box is 4 N. If the magnitude of the vector focre is 12 N what is the magnitude of the force on the Wheaties box from the Cheerios box?

Can you clearify what I have to do?

You need to determine the acceleration first, since you cannot apply force equilibrium to any box.

Fnet = (M1 + M2) a

Fnet = 12 - 2 - 4 = 6 N accel;erates the two boxes together.

Solve for a and then apply
F = M1 a
to the Cheerios box alone, to solve for the force net F acting on the Cheerios box.
F = 12 - F', where F' is the force applied by the Wheaties box in front of it.
F' is the force that they want you to compute

Answer 1

8.8N