A student applies an upward force of 52 N to a 5.6-kg physics textbook. Find the book’s acceleration (positive for up, negative for down).

The acceleration is roughly 9.3 m/s^2

The acceleration is positive.

Work Shown:

Using Newton's Second Law, we get,

F = m*a

52 = 5.6a

5.6a = 52

a = 52/5.6

a = 9.28571428571429 which is approximate

a = 9.3

I rounded to 2 significant figures because both 52 and 5.6 are to 2 sig figs.

The acceleration is positive because the student applied an upward force.

The units for the acceleration are in meters per second squared, abbreviated as m/s^2.

An acceleration of 9.3 m/s^2 means that after every second, the velocity has increased by 9.3 m/s.