24. One person pushes on a motionless box in the right direction with a force of 15 N. Another person pushes on the box in the left direction with a force of 5 N. Assuming that the static friction force is negligible, what is the result?
Answer: D
The box moves to the right.
The net force acting on the box is in the right direction, resulting in the box moving to the right. The force applied from the right side (15 N) is greater than the force from the left side (5 N), leading to a net force of 10 N to the right.
A) The box remains still.
This option is incorrect because the box is subjected to unequal forces. The force of 15 N pushing to the right exceeds the 5 N push to the left, resulting in a net force that causes the box to move, not remain still.
B) The box moves upward.
This option is incorrect as there is no vertical force acting on the box. The forces applied are horizontal, and therefore, the box cannot move upward based on the given scenario.
C) The box moves to the left.
This option is incorrect because the leftward force of 5 N is not sufficient to overcome the rightward force of 15 N. The net force is 10 N to the right, indicating that the box will not move to the left.
D) The box moves to the right.
This option is correct because the net force of 10 N acting to the right, resulting from the difference between the two forces, will cause the box to move in that direction.
Conclusion
The correct answer is that the box moves to the right due to the net force created by the difference in applied forces. All other options fail because they either suggest no movement or movement in the wrong direction, which contradicts the net force calculation.