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Here's the diagram. All forces acting on the block are in red. The ones
acting on the string are in blue.
What are the forces acting on the block?
- There is the ``normal force''. This force acts normal to the
surface and is exerted by the plane on the block. The reason it's normal
is that the plane is frictionless and can't exert forces along the
direction of the plane. So it has to be normal.
- There is the weight of the object due to the force of gravity.
This acts down.
- There is the force the string exerts on the mass. That force
is parallel to the plane
Now how about the forces acting on the string? There are two drawn in blue.
Because it's a string and its going over a frictionless wheel, the two
blue forces have the same magnitude. By the way, the force the string
exerts on the mass is the same as the force the mass exerts on the
string by the third law.
Joshua Deutsch
Wed Jan 7 17:12:17 PST 1998