The only rule for drawing free-body diagrams is to depict all the forces that exist for that object in the given situation. There is no hard and fast rule about the number of forces that must be drawn in a free-body diagram. There will be cases in which the number of forces depicted by a free-body diagram will be one, two, or three. Objects do not necessarily always have four forces acting upon them. T he free-body diagram above depicts four forces acting upon the object. An example of a free-body diagram is shown at the right It is generally customary in a free-body diagram to represent the object by a box and to draw the force arrow from the center of the box outward in the direction that the force is acting. Each force arrow in the diagram is labeled to indicate the exact type of force. The direction of the arrow shows the direction that the force is acting. The size of the arrow in a free-body diagram reflects the magnitude of the force. These diagrams will be used throughout our study of physics. A free-body diagram is a special example of the vector diagrams that were discussed in an earlier unit. Free-body diagrams are diagrams used to show the relative magnitude and direction of all forces acting upon an object in a given situation.
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