Which method will correctly determine whether the forces on an object are balanced or unbalanced?

To determine whether the forces on an object are balanced or unbalanced, you can follow these steps:

1. Identify all the forces acting on the object: This includes both contact forces (like friction or tension) and non-contact forces (like gravity or magnetic force).

2. Draw a free body diagram: This is a simple sketch of the object with arrows representing each force. The direction of the arrow shows the direction of the force, and its length represents the magnitude (size) of the force.

3. Calculate the resultant force: This is the vector sum of all the individual forces. If you're dealing with forces in a single dimension, you can simply add up all the forces (taking into account their direction). If the forces are in two dimensions, you'll need to use vector addition to find the resultant force.

4. Check the resultant force: If the resultant force is zero, the forces are balanced. This means the object is either at rest or moving at a constant velocity. If the resultant force is not zero, the forces are unbalanced. This means the object is accelerating in the direction of the resultant force.