On vacation, your 1300 kg car pulls a 540 kg trailer away from a stop light with an acceleration of 2.02 m/s2. (a) What is the net force exerted by the car on the trailer? (b) What force does the trailer exert on the car? (c) What is the net force acting on the car?

Question

I've attempted to work on it and look at the other questions similar to this one, but I have this online and it's not accepting any of my answers. Help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

(a) The car accelerates the trailer. the force Ft required to accelerate it (neglecting friction) is
Ft = Mt*a
where Mt is the mass of the trailer.

Is that what you assumed?

(b) Recall Newton's third law
the answer is the same as (a), but the force is in the opposite drection.

(c) For the NET force on the car, Fc, is easily computerd. It is
Fc = Mc*a

1300 kg * 2.02 m/s^2 = ___ N

The net Fc force ON THE CAR is the force applied at the tires minus the backward force at the trailer hitch.

Answer 2

987