Question

A metallic ball is hanging by a string from a fixed support. Draw a neat labelled diagram showing the force acting on the ball and the string.

Answer 1

Hint: First of all, we will draw the ball which is held by a string, from the ceiling. Then we will add the force component of its weight and the tension in the string. We know, acceleration due to gravity acts downward.

Complete step by step answer: In the given question, we are supplied the following data:
A metallic ball is hanging from a ceiling by a string.
So, we need to draw a diagram showing all the forces acting the ball.
It is really simple though, as they have not mentioned any other types of forces like friction force etc.
We just need to draw the ball and add the respective forces acting on it.

In the diagram as you can see that the ball is hanging, it will definitely have mass, since all objects have its own mass, may it be smaller or bigger, does not matter. Due to the presence of mass and acceleration due to gravity, the weight of the body will act downward. This is because the direction of the acceleration due to gravity is downward. However, the ball is held by a string, which will have a tension force, directed in the upward direction. This is because the string applies an equal amount of force to that of the weight of the ball, to keep its position in equilibrium. Since, the body is not moving, rather it is simply hanging from the ceiling, only two forces come into play i.e. the weight of the ball and the tension force in the string. An object can only remain in equilibrium only if the forces act along the opposite direction to cancel out each other.

Note:Whenever you make free body diagrams, be sure to add the opposite force against any force that you are adding, so that the body remains balanced or in other word you can say equilibrium. As long as the tension force balances the weight of the body, the body will remain still. But if the weight of the body exceeds the tension force in the string, equilibrium will be disturbed and the body falls off.