Net Force Diagrams

Have students mark the larger side of each diagram before they subtract, and write the direction every time. Use the Moon question to check that students can keep mass and weight separate.

Add the forces on six diagrams to find net force and decide if the forces are balanced. The directions on the page read: Read the text. Write each net force with its direction. Write balanced or unbalanced, and yes or no for a change in motion. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 6th Grade forces and motion, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with forces and friction. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

When the net force is 0 N, the forces are balanced and the object's motion does not change. When the net force is more than 0 N, the forces are unbalanced, so the object speeds up, slows down or changes direction.

Rough surfaces have tiny bumps that catch on each other. In the sample data on Friction and Gravity, the pull rises from 2 N on ice to 14 N on sandpaper.

It depends on mass and distance. The more mass the objects have, the stronger the pull, and the farther apart they are, the weaker the pull.