Example of only a single force occurence?

[llamaboy]

Is this possible?

I have been struggling with the following question, which is an assignment from my physics professor. Any help would be wonderful, thank you...

Is it possible to have a naturally occurring situation where an object/element/particle is being acted upon by only a single force? i.e. the net Force on the object = the force of the single force.

I think it has to be a electromagnetically neutral particle that is being acted upon only by one instance of the gravitational force.

is this possible? What would be an example?

Thank you, Llamaboy

 

[vincentchan]

how about the Earth going around the sun?

 

[wais]

Yes, it is possible to have a naturally occurring situation where an object is being acted upon by only a single force. One example of this is a satellite in orbit around the Earth. The only force acting on the satellite is the force of gravity from the Earth. This is because the satellite is in a state of constant free-fall, where the gravitational force is the only force acting on it. In this scenario, the net force on the satellite is equal to the force of gravity, making it an example of a single force occurrence.