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How do you find the net acceleration of an object with known mass, given opposite horizontal forces acting on the object?

Imagine playing tug of war with a dog over a squirrel chew toy. If you pull the toy with 15 N of force, and the dog pulls the toy with 20 N of force, then what will the acceleration be of the 0.5 kg chew toy?

Summary

  1. m- mass
  2. kg- kilograms
  3. FYOUR- your pulling force
  4. N- Newtons, the units of force
  5. FDOG- the dog's pulling force
  6. aNET- the net acceleration
  7. m- meters
  8. s- seconds

Notes

    1. FNET- the net force
    2. m- mass
    3. aNET- the net acceleration
    1. aNET- the net acceleration
    1. FNET- the net force
    2. m- mass
    3. aNET- the net acceleration
    1. FNET- the net force
    1. The force-body diagram is just a diagram of the object with all the forces that act on it
    1. FYOUR- your pulling force
    2. FDOG- the dog's pulling force
    3. N- Newtons, the units for force
    4. The positive direction points to the left
    1. To add the forces, we add the two opposite force vectors
    1. FYOUR- your pulling force
    2. FDOG- the dog's pulling force
    3. FNET- the net force
    4. N- Newtons, the units for force
    1. aNET- the net acceleration
    2. N- newtons
    3. kg- kilograms
    1. aNET- the net acceleration
    2. m- meters
    3. s- seconds
    4. acceleration points in the positive direction (with the dog) and so it is positive