Resultant force

Many forces may be simultaneously applied on a body. For example, several persons may jointly make an effort to move a heavy body, each person pushes it i.e. applies a force on it. It is also possible that a stronger man pushes that body hard enough and produces same acceleration in it. If a single force acting on a body produces the same acceleration(both direction and magnitude same) as produced by a number of forces, then that single force is called the resultant force of these individual forces.

NOTE Resultant force

• If the two forces act in the same directions on an object, then net force acting on it is the sum of two forces.
•  If the two forces act in the opposite directions on an object, the net force acting on it is the difference between the two forces.
• In the tug-of-war when two teams pull equally hard, the rope does not move in any direction.
• So, we learn that a force could be larger or smaller than the other. The strength of a force is usually expressed by its magnitude. We have also to specify the direction in which a force acts. Also, if the direction or the magnitude of the applied force changes, its effect also changes. NCERT solutions for class 8 Science prepared by Physics Wallah will help you to solve your NCERT text book exercise.