Open up PhET simulation “Forces and Motion.” and click on the sim for NET FORCE.

Part A: Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

TASK 1
a. Place the LARGEST blue against the smallest red.
b. Make a prediction about the movement of the cart.
c. AFTER you have observed the actual movement, click on the sum of the forces box at the top right hand corner.
Record the number in the data chart.
Different Sizes Predicted motion Actual Motion Net Force
(none, left, right) (none, left, right) (0, #-left, #-right)

any left 100 N left

TASK 2
a. Place the largest blue against the smallest red and the medium red.
b. Make a prediction. Then test your prediction and record the Net Force.
Combining forces Predicted motion Actual Motion Net Force
(none, left, right) (none, left, right) (0, #-left, #-right)

any none 0

TASK 3
a. Repeat TASK 1 but...
b. After the cart has moved a little bit add a Medium sized person to the red side.
Combining forces Predicted winner Actual winner Net Force (at the end)
(none, left, right) (none, Blue, Red) (0, #-left, #-right)

any Blue 0
Part A: Balanced and Unbalanced Forces: Analysis and Conclusions
1. Describe the force pairs for each task after 2 minutes of running each simulation.

Task Balanced or Unbalanced Forces? Blue win/Red win/tie?

1 Unbalanced Blue

2 Balanced Tie

3 Balanced Blue

2. In Task 3, why did that happen? Explain using the terms Net Force, balanced forces, and constant velocity.
The net force on the cart was zero, because the forces were balanced. When this happens the cart will move
with constant velocity, and since it was already moving left, it continued to move that way until Blue won.

3. True or false? Balanced forces cause a change in motion. Explain how you know using evidence from the tasks.
False, balanced forces like in Task 2 and 3 make the cart continue whatever it was doing when the balanced
forces were applied.

4. True or false? Unbalanced forces cause a change in motion. Explain how you know using evidence from the
tasks.
True, unbalanced forces cause movement to change like in Task 1 where the cart sped up to the left.

5. True or false? Unbalanced forces have a net force of zero. If false, edit the statement so it is true.
False. Balanced forces have a net force of zero, OR unbalanced forces have a nonzero net force.

Part B: Friction

1. Open the Forces and Motion Basics simulation and play with the Friction sim
for a few minutes.

2. Imagine that your friend, Sam, is trying to move a box.

a. Using what you learned by exploring, represent Sam’s Applied Force and
the Friction Force to predict what might happen in the pictures below. Flip, resize, and reposition the green
FORCE arrows and labels below. (Try this part without using the simulation.)
 Scenario A: Sam pushing but box not moving Scenario B: Sam pushing and box moving

b. Check your sketches using the sim and make corrections if needed.

c. What do you notice about the similarities and differences between the Applied Force arrow and the Friction
Force arrows in each scenario?

Scenario Similarities between Applied Force Differences between Applied Force

and Friction Force and Friction Force

A Same size or magnitude opposite direction

B none, or both horizontal. opposite direction and different sizes

or magnitudes

3. What two forces that are acting on the box are missing from the simulation that would be happening in reality?
Force Direction

Gravitational Down

Normal or Force from the Floor Up

4. What are the two ways to increase friction force for any sliding surfaces?
Increase the roughness.

Increase the contact force (normal force)

5. Challenges:
Challenge Insert Snip of the screen shot with Explain what is happening to the box’s
 Speedometer and sum of forces motion?

Find a way to get the object The box was moving quickly, but then
moving in one direction, when the applied force ended it was still
even though the sum of moving and friction began to slow it
forces is in the other. down.

Find a way to get the sum The box was moving, but then when the
of forces to go in the girl was added friction increased and
opposite direction of the began to slow it down.
applied force AND motion.

Find a way to get the The box was moving, but then when the
applied force and friction applied force was reversed, both it and
to go the same direction. friction go towards slowing the box
down.

6. Have Sam moving the box, then add objects on top of it.

What does adding objects on top of the box do to the mass? increases it

What does adding objects on top of the box do to the friction? increases it

Sam isn’t trying to lift the box. He’s not trying to fight gravity. Why increasing the mass will increase the contact
then does changing the mass affect friction in this way? force between the box and the ground, and this
increases friction.
7. What general statement can you make about the relationship between net force and how fast an object changes its
velocity?

The greater the net force, the faster the object’s velocity changes.

8. i) Check your answers.

ii) What did we learn in this lesson?

- We learned…
- How to make Free Body Diagrams for objects
- Friction always opposes motion.
- Objects with balanced force may still be moving with constant velocity (Newton’s First
Law).