Question

Imagine someone pulling a wagon across the ground, just hard enough to make the wagon move at a steady (constant) speed.

Answer 1

Answer:

Following Newton's third law (... equal and opposite forces...), the string stretches until it reaches its tightest point.

You might imagine this to be like a tug-of-war game with both sides dead even.

Since we are focusing on horizontal forces, and since exactly two horizontal forces are pulling in opposite vector directions to the same extent, these cancel each other out, as seen here:

∑

F

x

=

T

−

F

x

=

m

a

x

=

0

As stated in the question, it would mean that

T

=

F

x

(so

T

−

F

x

=

0

). Thus, if

F

x

=

10 N

,

T

=

10 N

.

(Additionally, even if

m

is small,

a

x

must therefore be

0 m/s

2

.)

Hope its helpful to you.❤️