(Write a CER) Make a claim about what happened when the forces on the object were balanced. Use your observations as evidence to support your claim. What was the net force in this situation?

Answer 1

Claim: When the forces on the object were balanced, the object remained at rest or continued to move at a constant velocity.

Evidence: In an experiment where an object was subjected to equal forces acting in opposite directions—such as a 5 N force pushing right and a 5 N force pushing left—the object exhibited no change in its state of motion. Observations showed that the object did not accelerate but remained stationary when at rest, and when it was already in motion, it continued to move at a constant speed in the same direction.

Reasoning: According to Newton's First Law of Motion, an object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion at a constant velocity unless acted upon by a net external force. In this situation, because the forces were balanced (the sum of all forces equaled zero), the net force acting on the object was 0 N. This lack of a net force explains why there was no change in the object's motion, thus verifying the claim that balanced forces result in a stable state of motion.