A girl and a dog are playing tug of war with a piece of rope. The girl pulls on the rope with a force of 165 newtons (N) towards the east, and the dog pulls with a force of 190 N towards the west. What is the net force on the rope?
A. 25 N towards the west
B. 190 N towards the west
C. 165 N towards the east
D. 35 N towards the east
To find the net force, we choose east direction as positive and west as negative. From this, we can present the tag of war in the diagram below.
So, the force on the dog is -190 N and that of the girl is 165 N.
The net force is the sum of the two forces
The resulting force is negative, meaning it is in the west direction. Thus, the net force is 25 N to the west.
Therefore, the Correct Answer is A.