A group of children are engaged in a game of tug-of-war. The children on the left-hand side of the rope pull with magnitude of 110 N to the left. The children on the right-hand side of the rope pull with a magnitude of 140 N to the right.

Question

If you assign a positive value to forces applied to the left and a negative value to forces applied to the right, what is the net force applied to the rope?

(1 point)
Responses

-30 N
-30 N

30 N
30 N

250 N
250 N

140 N

Answer 1

To determine the net force applied to the rope, we need to consider the forces applied by each side, assigning positive values to the forces applied to the left and negative values to the forces applied to the right.

1. Children on the left-hand side pull with a force of 110 N to the left:
   \( F_{\text{left}} = +110 , \text{N} \)

2. Children on the right-hand side pull with a force of 140 N to the right:
   \( F_{\text{right}} = -140 , \text{N} \)

Now we can calculate the net force:

\[ F_{\text{net}} = F_{\text{left}} + F_{\text{right}} = 110 , \text{N} + (-140 , \text{N}) = 110 , \text{N} - 140 , \text{N} = -30 , \text{N} \]

The negative sign indicates that the net force is directed to the right.

Thus, the net force applied to the rope is \(-30 , \text{N}\).

The correct response is: -30 N