Alex is asked to move two boxes of books in contact with each other and resting on a frictionless floor.

Question

Alex is asked to move two boxes of books in contact with each other and resting on a frictionless floor. He decides to move them at the same time by pushing on box A with a horizontal pushing force FP = (+8.40) N .  Here A has a mass m_A = 10.5 kg and B has a mass m_B = 7.00 kg.  The contact force between the two boxes is FC and N denotes the normal force.

a) What is the magnitude of the acceleration of the two boxes? = ? m/s^2

Answer 1

FP=8.40N

m_A=10.5kg

m_B=7.00kg

m_T=m_A+m_B=10.5kg+7.00kg=17.50kg

FP=m_Ta

a=?

a=FP/m_T=8.40N/17.5kg=0.48m/s²

a=0.48m/s²