Question

(a). Name the forces acting on a plastic bucket containing water held above ground level in your hand.
(b). Discuss why the force acting on the bucket does not change its state of motion?
(c). Why do potters place a round piece of cloth on their heads when they have to carry heavy loads?

Answer 1

In order to understand which forces are acting on the bucket we will draw the mass body diagram of the bucket and see why even after various forces acting on the bucket still it is in equilibrium position and there is no change in its motion. We will also see how this information will be useful to answer why potters place a round piece of cloth on their heads when they have to carry heavy loads.

Complete step by step solution:
(a). We know that Gravitational force is a force acting on any object consisting of mass. This force acts on every object (except when the object is in vacuum) because every object is attracted towards Earth according to Newton’s universal law of gravitation. So, here the bucket must also experience the gravitational force regardless of the fact that whether it is held above ground level or not.
When the bucket is held above the ground level by us then there will be a muscular force acting on the bucket which is pulling the bucket against the gravitational force.
Now, we will draw the mass body diagram of the bucket held by us:

(b). Now we have seen that whenever we hold a bucket it stays still in our hand and does not change its state of motion. That happens because the amount of the pulling force which is muscular force is equal and opposite to the gravitational force acting on it. Therefore the net force acting on the bucket becomes zero and hence, the bucket stays still.
(c). Potters place a round, thick piece of cloth on their head when they have to carry heavy loads because it will increase the area of contact of the load with their head. As the load now falls on a larger area of head, the pressure on head is reduced and becomes easier to carry the load.
Note:
One must note that the given object would no more be in equilibrium if the net force is not equal to zero or the forces acting on it from every direction is not equal. The object will tend to move towards the bigger force acting on it.