Tension at rest

Question

The plastic bag to the right holds 2.5 kg of food. What is

the tension in each handle when it is held up at rest?

Answer 1

I'll assume there are two handles with things evenly distributed. A free body diagram would look like this:

where T₁ is the tension in one handle and T₂ is the tension in the second handle and where W is the weight.

W = mg so 2.5•9.8 = 24.5 N

The sum of the forces equals zero since there is no motion. So T₁ + T₂ + W = 0 or:

T₁ + T₂ + 24.5 = 0

Since T₁ = T₂

T₁ + T₁ + 24.5 = 0

2T₁ = -24.5

T₁ = -12.25

Rounding to 2 sig figs the tension in each handle is 13 N