Question

Bonnie and clyde are sliding a 300 kg bank safe across the floor to their getaway car. the safe slides with a constant speed if clyde pushes from behind with 445 n of force while bonnie pulls forward on a rope with 350 n of force. what is the safe's coefficient of kinetic friction on the bank floor?

Answer 1

We can draw a free body diagram for the safe to show all the horizontal forces acting on the safe. The three horizontal forces are Clyde's force, Bonnie's force, and friction. Since the safe slides at a constant speed (no acceleration), the net force must be zero. 0 = Clyde's force + Bonnie's force - friction friction = Clyde's force + Bonnie's force mg mu = Clyde's force + Bonnie's force mu = (Clyde's force + Bonnie's force) / (mg) mu = (445 N + 350 N) / (300 kg x 9.80~m/s^2) mu = 0.27 The coefficient of friction is 0.27