The problem does state that the student is pushing the boxes, however it doesn't state whether he continues to do so. It just asks, in the event that the boxes are slowing down when moving to the right, which net force is greater and in which direction is that net force pointing.
When...
The direction of acceleration of Box 1 is to the right (which I am going to make an assumption is the positive direction, I should've made that assumption in my original post).
Newton's 2nd Law states that net force and acceleration must be in the same direction.
Box 1 is in contact with, but behind, Box 2. So, the student has contact with Box 1. The student pushes the boxes (they were already together when they were pushed).
Ok, that makes sense. Well, I wasn't given any specific values for anything. However, based on what you just told me, wouldn't the net force on Box 1 be larger than the net force on Box 2 due to it's larger mass? This net force would be pointing to the right, which is the direction the boxes...
So, I am having some trouble with understanding force concepts. I do understand that Newton's 3rd law can be described as "describing the same interaction with the same magnitude of force, but in opposite directions on each object." So, I have a concern with a question that I have on my...
The amount of energy in a closed system stays constant, it's just transferred into different forms. As dauto said, the energy is transferred to kinetic energy, although the total amount of energy stays constant within the system.