Problem 5.1: A 2-kg Physics textbook pressed against a wall does not move

Please wait for the animation to completely load.

Consider a 2-kg physics textbook (not drawn to scale) pressed against a wall, which has a coefficient of static friction of μs = 0.3 and a coefficient of kinetic friction of μk = 0.2 as shown in the animation (position is given in meters and time is given in seconds). Restart.

  1. Draw a free-body diagram for the book, showing all the forces that act.
  2. What is the net force on the book? Include both magnitude and direction in your answer.
  3. What is the minimum force of the push represented by the hand?
  4. What happens to the motion of the book and to the forces if the push is greater than your answer to (c)?

Physlets were developed at Davidson College and converted from Java to JavaScript using the SwingJS system developed at St. Olaf College.

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