A student pushes a heavy box that is already moving across a rough floor. If the force applied by the student is exactly equal to the frictional force opposing the motion, what will happen to the box?
The box will move at a constant speed
To understand the answer to this question, we need to analyze the forces involved when a box is moving across a rough floor:
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Forces Acting on the Box: When the box is moving, a frictional force acts in the direction opposite to the motion. This frictional force is known as kinetic friction.
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Equilibrium Condition: If the force applied by the student is equal to the frictional force, the forces in the horizontal direction are balanced. According to Newton's first law of motion, if the net force acting on an object is zero, the object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity.
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Effect on Box's Motion: Since the applied force exactly balances the frictional force, the net force on the box is zero. Therefore, the box will continue to move at a constant speed, as there is no unbalanced force to change its state of motion.
Thus, the correct answer is that the box will move at a constant speed.
Ruling out other options:
- The box cannot move at increasing speed or accelerate forward, as this would require a net force greater than zero.
- The box will not come to rest as long as it is initially moving and the forces are balanced.
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