Two forces of 4N and 10N act on a body. Which of the following could not be the resultant magnitude? (14N, 7N, 6N, 3N)

My first thought when dealing with resultant forces is to try out the most common combinations: combined and opposite. In this case 10N + 4N = 14N and 10N - 4N = 6N. This tactic does rule out two of the answers, but we are still left wondering what is the difference between the remaining answers: 7N and 3N. Why those two options were given? If, say, 7N is obtainable, then how?The trick to "which one is not" questions is to think in terms of boundaries, not values. By their nature, such questions imply that a whole range of values exists and your job is to figure out the boundaries of that range. There is an infinite number of angles that those two forces can be acting at, but the edge cases we have looked at before provide us with the maximum and minimum values of that range. Therefore, 3N is not obtainable, since, no matter the configuration, 10N - 4N = 6N is the absolute minimum resultant force.

AJ

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

A car travelling at 28 m/s brakes until it stops completely after travelling a distance of 15 m. Calculate the deceleration of the car.


If a vehicle A, 1000kg moving at 5m/s collides with vehicle B, 750kg, moving in the opposite direction at 8m/s assuming no rebound what is the velocity of the vehicles after collision.


Explain the photo-electric effect and describe how the intensity of light effects rate of electron emission.


An electrical heater supplies 500J of heat energy to a copper cylinder of mass 32.4g Find the increase in temperature of the cylinder. (Specific heat capacity of copper = 385 J*kg^-1*Celsius^-1