A woman is riding on a train while watching the display on a GPS unit. She notices that both the "speed" and the "heading" readings are not changing. What can she conclude about the net force acting on the train car?

Question

Willow Short

Physics

30 June, 16:21

A woman is riding on a train while watching the display on a GPS unit. She notices that both the "speed" and the "heading" readings are not changing. What can she conclude about the net force acting on the train car?

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Answers (1)

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Adeline Watts · Answer 1

There is no force acting on the body.

Explanation:

While riding a train when a person watches on a GPS that the speed is not changing and also 'heading' is not changing that means the train is moving with constant speed. Heading in GPS means the direction shown in the compass, when the heading is not changing then that means there is no change in the direction of the train. Therefore the person is in a train moving with constant velocity. When any object moves with constant velocity this implies that there is no force acting on the body. This is in accordance with the Newton's first law of motion which states that any particle continues to be in the state of rest or uniform motion until an external force acts upon it. Acceleration is defined in the Newton's second law as the rate of change in velocity. Here we have a constant velocity in terms of both the magnitude and the direction.