Newton's second law -- Crate sliding in the back of an accelerating truck

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Ok so do i need to consider the mass of the crate on the truck as whole so (mass of the truck + mass of the crate) what about the air forces (Fa1 and Fa2) do i need to add them too, or are they considered as internal forces?
 
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Franklie001 said:
Ok so do i need to consider the mass of the crate on the truck as whole so (mass of the truck + mass of the crate) what about the air forces (Fa1 and Fa2) do i need to add them too, or are they considered as internal forces?
Here's a clue:

 
@Franklie001, if you want to do it using simultaneous equations, here are the steps...

’1’ is the truck and ‘2’ is the crate.

1. Find the resultant force on the truck, ##F_1##, the sum of all the forces on the truck.
Hey, I'll even do that one for you:
Reading-off the truck's free body diagram gives:
##F_1 =5000 - 600 - F_{friction} = 4400 - F_{friction}##.

2. Find the resultant force on the crate, ##F_2##, the sum of all the forces on the crate.
You do that one yourself.

3. Apply ##F_1=m_1a## to the truck to get equation 1.
I'll do that one for you:
##4400 - F_{friction} = 8000a## (equation 1)

4. Apply ##F_2=m_2a## to the crate to get equation 2.
You do that one yourself.

5. You now have 2 simultaneous equations with unknowns ##a## and ##F_{friction}##. You solve them.

If you don't like simultaneous equations, see the suggested method in my previous posts.
 
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I've used the simultaneous equations and i 've got for the acceleration ax= 0.39 m/s^2 and for the force of friction f= -880N
Is that right?
 
Franklie001 said:
I've used the simultaneous equations and i 've got for the acceleration ax= 0.39 m/s^2 and for the force of friction f= -880N
Is that right?
Sadly that doesn't look quite right. Did you remember the air resistance on the crate?
 
No you are right I've got for the acceleration ax=0.382 m/s^2
and for the friction force f = 944N

Am i right?
 
So if the friction force is 944N i have an equal and opposite friction force acting on the crate.
Therefore the second solution is given already Ff=944N.
And the coefficient is 0.043
 
Franklie001 said:
So if the friction force is 944N i have an equal and opposite friction force acting on the crate.
Therefore the second solution is given already Ff=944N.
And the coefficient is 0.043
I get a different answer. Did you remember the air resistance on the crate?
 
I've got Friction force = 1040N
and coefficient of kinetic friction u = 0.048
 
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Franklie001 said:
I've got Friction force = 1040N
and coefficient of kinetic friction u = 0.048
Well done. But you may have a rounding error. I got the friction force to be 1027.45N which rounds to 1030N.
 
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