Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

Balanced and Unbalanced Forces
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 5 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.53

Vocabulary

challenging words:

force, meaning, opposite, object, equal, amount, neither, however, cause, addition, speed, between, combination, against, direction, apply

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Balanced and Unbalanced Forces
By Cindy Grigg

¹     A force is a push or a pull on an object. Forces are at work all around you all the time. More than one force can-and usually does- act on an object at the same time. Sometimes two forces act in the same direction. An example is when two people work together to push a heavy object. Sometimes the forces act in different directions.

²     Imagine a tug-of-war between you and one friend. If you are stronger, you apply more force to the rope. You pull your friend across the line, and you are the winner! If your friend is stronger, he might pull you across the line. Sometimes the forces are equal. Neither you nor your friend moves across the line. The two forces are balanced.

³     We say that the net force on an object is the combination of all the forces acting on it. To find the net force of forces that are acting in the same direction, add them together. For example, if you pull on a box with a force of 25 newtons (N) while your friend pushes the box (in the same direction you are pulling) with a force of 30 N, the net force applied to the box in that direction is 55 newtons.

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