Is Newton's 3rd Law Cancelled in This Friction Problem?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around a friction problem involving a forklift and crates, specifically examining the application of Newton's Third Law in this context. The original poster describes a scenario from a textbook exercise that requires determining the maximum number of crates a forklift can push, given certain forces and coefficients of friction.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Conceptual clarification

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants explore the relationship between action and reaction forces in the context of the problem, questioning why Newton's Third Law appears not to apply as expected. They discuss the calculations of forces involved and the implications of different approaches to the problem.

Discussion Status

The conversation has evolved with some participants expressing confusion about the application of Newton's Third Law, while others have begun to clarify their understanding through discussion. There is recognition of different approaches to solving the problem, and some participants have indicated they have resolved their confusion.

Contextual Notes

Participants note the importance of understanding the action and reaction forces in the problem and express a desire for further clarification on the concept of cancelling forces, particularly in relation to Newton's Third Law.

Lisciu
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Hi Guys,

I was highly studied the Newton's law once again. Probably to recall the concept from the past of my education. Anyway I find out the exercise during solving the friction problems from Hibbeler book.

The exercises is state as :
The fork lift has a weight W1 and center of gravity at G. If the rear wheels are powered, whereas the front wheels are free to roll, determine the maximum number of crates, each of weight W2 that the fork lift can push forward. The coefficient of static friction between the wheels and the ground is μ s and between each crate and the ground is μ 's.

The whole system looks like this:

bCoOXxv.png


And then it's separate on two objects:

FBD of the 1:

JN58EjX.png


FBD of 2:

icY4dKA.png

And there is nothing suprised about that except the action and reaction force from the crates and front wheel.

I expected that those force will be equal like the 3rd Newton law said. But during the solving and after see those images from book solution looks like 3rd Newton law doesn't work anymore...

Could someone explain what is the reason of that? And where is actually the action and reaction force? I'm confused here.
 
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Lisciu said:
And where is actually the action and reaction force?
The only 3rd law pair here is ##P=-P'##. If you got anything else then you made a mistake.
 
Seriously? :) when you figured it out that I don't know that?

So why P is equal 707,37lb : and P' is equal : 105lb?
 
Lisciu said:
So why P is equal 707,37lb : and P' is equal : 105lb?
That is not correct, but there is no way to tell where you went wrong without more details about how you attempted to solve it.
 
It's okay. I figured it out what is going on here. Because in the solving book author calculated the P' force for just one crate to calculate how many he can push by this fork lift. I realize that if I will calculated it with diffrent approach like typical 3rd law Newton without calculating reaction force for just one crate I will have the same result. I just took the calculate force P from fork lift and then using this force in X direction net force summing (2rd law) get the force of normal acting on. When I have it I just divided it by one crates weight and actually I get the number of crates this system can handle.
 
That's good. I think I probably would have followed something closer to your approach than to the books approach.
 
Yeap, me too. I was just confused for whole day. Then I just sit once again on the problem and realize where was the hatch.

Anyway I will need to create the topic around 3rd Law because I not undestand in 100% this concept specially if someone talk about cancelling force not cancelling force and then i was thinking about this action and reaction force as a unended storry with domino effect in whole body if we consider for example hammer and nail.
 

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