a body is acted upon by a number forces. can it remain at rest?
Answers
Answer:
if the vector sum of all the external forces is zero then the body will remain at rest.
Answer:
Firstly you need to define what is REST.
Being at rest is always relative to something else. There is nothing absolutely at rest.
After having finalised what that thing is. The answer is YES.
If the net sum of all those forces is zero. Then the body stays in whatever state it was. Either of rest or of uniform motion.
Example : My computer screen is at rest right now. It has number of forces acting on it. One of them is gravity. That force is transferred to the table. The opposing force is the reaction force exerted by the table on the monitor the net sum is zero.You may read the above link for newton’s laws which explain the reasons. BTW Newton’s laws are NOT wrong if someone tells you. They have limited applicability and do not work with things moving too fast comparable to speed of light. Otherwise they are fine.