Alex is asked to move two boxes of books in contact with each other and resting on a frictionless floor.

Alex is asked to move two boxes of books in contact with each other and resting on a frictionless floor. He decides to move them at the same time by pushing on box A with a horizontal pushing forceFp=7.6N. Here box A has a massmA=13.3kgand box B has a massmB= 7.0 kg.The contact force between the two boxes isFcandNdenotes the normal force.

(a) What is the acceleration of the two boxes?

m/s2

(b) What is the force exerted onmBbymA?

N

(c) If Alex were to push from the other side on the 7.0 kg box, how would your answer to part (b) change?

N

Thanks