Questions is below

Question

Newtons Laws of Motion and Forces

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If the forces acting upon an object are balanced, then the object...

a) must not be moving

b) must be moving at a constant velocity

c) must be accelerating

d) none of these

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I believe the answer would be ¨b¨ but I would like to get clarification.

Answer 1

If the forces are balanced, then it sounds like the net force is zero (they all cancel out). So then, by Newton's Laws, the object will either be at rest or be moving at a constant velocity (not speeding up, not slowing down, and moving in a straight line). So, I think the answer should be d, because the object does not have to be moving at constant velocity--it could be at rest. An example would be a book resting on a table. There is a gravity force downward balanced by the normal force of the table upward. Even though the book is at rest, there are forces on it. The forces cancel each other out.