Three blocks on a frictionless horizon
n vnuu/gclg 1(;lurj/9wx *f6tal surface are in contact with each other,
9n /uwvlc6ur/n lu1f;gg( xj*as shown in Fig. 4-51. A force $\overrightarrow{\mathbf{F}}$ is applied to block 1 (mass .$m_{1}$) .
(a) Draw a free-body diagram for each block. Determine
(b) the acceleration of the system (in terms of $m_{1}$, $m_{2}$ , and $ m_{3}$ ),
(c) the net force on each block,
(d) the force of contact that each block exerts on its neighbor.
(e) If $m_{1}=m_{2}=m_{3}=12.0 \mathrm{~kg}$ and $ F=96.0 \mathrm{~N}$ , give numerical answers to (b),(c) , and (d) . Do your answers make sense intuitively?