Chapter 3, Problem 34A

Tim practices a demonstration before doing it for Sunday dinner. What concept is he illustrating, and why is he careful not to pull the tablecloth slightly upward?

To determine

The concept demonstrated by the man and reason for him to be careful while pulling the tablecloth.

Explanation of Solution

Introduction:

Law of inertia states that an object in state of rest remain at rest,if no external unbalanced force acts on it. Objects resist the change in their state due to inertia.

The plates on the table are at rest. Suppose a man was pulling the table cloth on the table which means he was changing the state of table cloth which is at rest. Here the plates are also at rest and they resist to change their state of rest.

Man has to be very careful not to pull tablecloth upward because if he pulls table cloth upwards, hemay exert unbalanced force on the plate and plate will move with table cloth andfallon the floor.

Conclusion:

Manhas to be very careful to not pull the tablecloth in upward direction otherwise plate will fall due to unbalanced force exerted on it.