Which of the following must be true in order for an object to stay in place?

Question

The forces must be balanced.
The forces must be positive.
The forces must be negative.
The forces must be gravitational.

Answer 1

For an object to stay in place, the correct statement is:

The forces must be balanced.

This means that the net force acting on the object is zero. If the forces acting on the object are balanced, it will not accelerate and will either remain at rest (if it was initially at rest) or move at a constant velocity (if it was initially in motion).