Home › JAMB UTME › Physics › Dynamics: Force and Newton's Laws of Motion › How does the normal force on an object resting o…
How does the normal force on an object resting on an incline compare with its full weight?
AIt is greater than the full weight of the object
BIt is less than the full weight of the object
CIt is exactly equal to the full weight always
DIt falls to zero for any inclined surface
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. It is less than the full weight of the object
1. On an incline the weight splits into a component perpendicular to the slope and one parallel to it.
2. The normal force balances only the perpendicular component.
3. That component is the full weight multiplied by the cosine of the slope angle, which is less than one.
4. So on an inclined plane the normal force is always less than the full weight.
5. Only on a level surface does the cosine reach one and the two become equal.
_Source: OpenStax College Physics (CC BY 4.0), Ch 4 "Dynamics: Force and Newton's Laws of Motion", section 4.5 Normal, Tension, and Other Examples of Forces_
Related questions
How many basic forces are now taken to account for all known phenomena?Objects falling toward Earth are never truly in free-fall in the real world because:When NASA speaks of weightlessness and microgravity, physics calls the same phenomenon:Weight is not an intrinsic property of an object because:The weight of a 1.0 kilogram object on Earth is about:A gravitational field g at an object's location exerts a force whose magnitude is:The diagram that shows only the external forces acting on one body is called a:A force exerted on an object is always due to: