I was wondering if sombody give me a hand with this question. This is the first time I've ever had a physics and I just have a little trouble getting started with the problems. The question is:

A jet with mass m = 90000.0 kg jet accelerates down the runway for takeoff at 1.6 m/s2.

1) What is the net horizontal force on the airplane as it accelerates for takeoff?

2) What is the net vertical force on the airplane as it accelerates for takeoff?

Question

I was wondering if sombody give me a hand with this question.  This is the first time I've ever had a physics and I just have a little trouble getting started with the problems. The question is:

A jet with mass m = 90000.0 kg jet accelerates down the runway for takeoff at 1.6 m/s2. 

1) What is the net horizontal force on the airplane as it accelerates for takeoff? 

2) What is the net vertical force on the airplane as it accelerates for takeoff?

shane_b · Answer

#1) The jet is accelerating horizontally at 1.6 m/s^2 so you can use Newton's Second Law to calculate the net horizontal force:$$Force=mass*acceleration$$#2) The jet is applying the force of its weight (mass * acceleration due to gravity) to the runway.  Conversely, the runway is exerting the exact same amount of force to the jet (the Normal force).  Since these two forces are equal an opposite there will be no net vertical force.